Letter from Hanoi

Announced in October 2024, even before Donald Trump was re-elected US president, construction on the Trump Organization's Vietnamese golf project got underway at breakneck speed. On May 21, it was none other than Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh who laid the foundation stone, 40 kilometers south of Hanoi. Inside a prefabricated hall set amidst vegetable fields, Eric Trump, the billionaire's younger son, his wife Lara and the project's Vietnamese partners paraded in front of local farmers. A red carpet stretched beneath an archway proudly proclaiming: "The groundbreaking ceremony of Trump International, Hung Yen."

In addition to three golf courses, 54 holes, with a highly selective membership that is reportedly "eco-friendly," the site is set to include a hotel, luxury villas and a residential area for 30,000 people spread over nearly 10 square kilometers in a rural area along the Red River.

In March, Vietnamese authorities promised to "facilitate the rapid advancement of the Trump project." According to the New York Times, they went even further, noting that just three months passed between the submission of the initial planning documents and the May 21 ceremony. Such projects usually take two to three years. The newspaper quoted experts who said that "Vietnam has ignored its own laws, legal experts said, granting concessions more generous than what even the most connected locals receive." At least six mandatory steps were reportedly skipped, including full land acquisition, public consultation and environmental impact studies.

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