Donald Trump may well be out of favour in Ireland in his third run for the White House. But new data suggests his golf and hotel resort in Co Clare is raking in money as tourism booms.
In an election filing to the American authorities, the former US president has declared more than €22 million in revenue from the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, at Doonbeg.
Such money is but a sliver of the €467 million income the Republican nominee declared in a 265-page submission to the US Office of Government Ethics. But it suggests his business on the Atlantic coast of Clare is doing well at a time when Irish voters are down on the man formerly known as “The Donald”.
Polling for The Irish Times in February by Ipsos B&A suggested only 14 per cent of Irish respondents preferred Mr Trump over his then rival president Joe Biden, who had 50 per cent support. Mr Biden’s recent decision not to seek a second term has dealt a blow to Mr Trump as vice-president Kamala Harris – the Democrats’ new nominee – surges in American polls.
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Joe Russell, managing director of the Doonbeg resort, declined on Friday to comment on the figures in Mr Trump’s Irish income.
The filing puts a valuation of up to $50 million (€45.44 million) on the golf links in Doonbeg and valuation of up to $5 million on the hotel. It goes on to describe “resort-related revenue” of €15.23 million for the “golf course and resort only” at Doonbeg and a further €7.29 million from hotel operations.
The period in which such revenues were made is not clear from the filing. The main Doonbeg company had revenues of €14.2 million in 2022 as the economy reopened after the pandemic. The business had day-to-day profits of €933,435 that year but incurred a net loss after tax of €740,288.
Mr Trump’s new financial disclosure sets out rent “receivables” in Allied Irish Bank accounts for two associate companies: Links Cottages Area Management Company, and Doonbeg Common Area Management. Such accounts each held between €50,000 and €100,000, the filing states.
The Irish figures were released alongside data from Trump’s sprawling business empire that included €300,000 in income from sales of branded Bibles. The files show a Miami company that owns golf and resort interests generated $161 million. The Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida – where Trump himself has a home – generated $57 million.
Also listed is a debt of more than $50 million to writer E Jean Carroll, who was awarded $83 million from Mr Trump for defamation after a sexual abuse case. He has appealed that ruling.
The 45th president of the US last visited Co Clare in 2023, saying Ireland has “lured a lot of companies” into the country “and they love it here”. On a visit when still in office in 2019 at a fraught time in Brexit talks, he described the Northern Ireland Border as “your wall” at a meeting with then taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
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