After Donald Trump’s accounting firm abruptly dropped him as a client, some experts are fearing for US national security.
Last week, Mazars USA announced that it would no longer work with the Trump Organization, and said all its financial statements on Mr Trump from 2011 to 2020 “should no longer be relied upon”. The firm not only disavowed the statements, but advised the Trump Organization to disavow them as well, saying the company “should inform any recipients” not to trust the numbers.
Mr Trump uses those statements to secure loans, and experts say the Mazars letter could leave him desperate for cash. According to Joseph Cirincione of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, that desperation could endanger the United States.
“This explodes the national security risk by a factor of 10, because now he’s going to be desperate for new loans,” Mr Cirincione told The Daily Beast. “Legitimate banks are not going to touch him. So it expands the universe of shady characters who could offer him loans in return for favors that might include disclosing US national security secrets.”
The foreign policy expert said these potential lenders could include countries with complicated relationships with the US, or even criminals.
“Whether it is the Saudis, Russians, narcoterrorists – anybody with access to hundreds of millions would be in the running for Donald Trump’s new loan officer,” Mr Cirincione said. “That is why you don’t give security clearance to people who are financially compromised.”
The Independent has reached out to Mr Trump and his company for comment.
Meanwhile, those close to the former president are said to be quietly terrified for his business. According to the Beast, three unnamed sources in Mr Trump’s inner circle say the Mazars news has them more worried than previous developments in the New York attorney general’s investigation of the Trump Organization.
“I’ll be honest with you: I have said for years that this whole thing is one big fishing expedition,” one of those sources told the Beast. “I’ve expected it to just fizzle at some point, or to turn up ticky tacky s*** that can score prosecutors big headlines. The Mazars news was the first time I started thinking, ‘Hey, this might be serious.’”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump himself has insisted his company is in great shape.
“We have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases, far more valuable than what was listed in our Financial Statements,” the former president said in a statement on Tuesday.
As for Mazars, Mr Trump said the firm simply caved in to the pressure of the investigations.
“The accounting firm Mazars has been threatened, harassed, and insulted like virtually no other firm has ever been,” he said. “They were essentially forced to resign from a great long-term account by the prosecutorial conduct” of Attorney General Letitia James and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
People close to the former president, however, are reportedly rattled.
“Could Donald Trump be screwed?” the Beast’s source asked. “I don’t know, but I’m not as confident as I once was in saying, ‘No.’”
