DONALD TRUMP JR.: Our buyers are traveling around the world. OK, before it was as global, before they traveled as much, you could say, "Hey, this is the best of the best." Well, now that they have flats in New York, Paris, London, they know that. And it was difficult for them. We all said it's sort of starved for luxury. They experienced it, they know what it is, but they couldn't get it in their home market. And so, you know, being able to actually deliver that kind of product here has made a big difference.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that's Donald Trump Jr. in India. Talk about how he defended his trip, and how exactly these businesses work.
ANJALI KAMAT: Right. So, he says, you know, the poor in India are very happy, they're smiling, they're happier than anywhere else. And then, later, he got very upset when he was criticized for saying that, and actually made a comment saying, you know -- that got a lot of attention in India, because he was like, you know, "The Indian media is so nice and mild," he said, because people just, you know, were very, very nice to him, for the most part.
And then he's at that fireside chat, in that last clip we saw, and at that chat, during that conversation at the business summit, he made a point of saying, "I'm here as a businessman. I'm here as a developer. I'm not here to do anything else." But the question is -- he is being advertised, on every Indian media station that he went on, without anybody opposing it, saying -- as the president's son. He's being advertised as the sitting -- as the son of a sitting U.S. president, and buyers are getting access to him. And the real question here is -- he held events in every city he went to, with buyers, with investors. In some events, politicians were there, as well, though they claim they weren't there in an official capacity. He's meeting with all of these different people.
And all these people are coming to meet with him, and their names are not being disclosed. Indian regulations don't necessarily allow you to know who has exactly put down deposits or bought apartments in these condos. They're supposed to. There's a new real estate regulatory authority that's supposed to make things more transparent. But it might be years before we actually know who was in that room with Don Jr. and why they're in that room. They might be in that room because they're "starved for luxury." Maybe people in India really want to buy Trump Tower apartments. There is a class of people who certainly do want to do that. India is one of the most unequal countries in the world, and there is an aspirational class of millionaires and billionaires that would want to buy Trump Tower apartments. But the point is, if there were people in that room who were trying to access Don Jr. because he's the president's son, we don't know who they are.
AMY GOODMAN: And also talk about why it matters in terms of Indian politics, and the relationship he has with Indian developers, and the central role developers play in Indian politics, as you can say the same things about the United States, of course, because one became the president of the United States.
ANJALI KAMAT: I mean, this is the thing that was probably most interesting to me as I was researching and reporting this story, is just trying to get a sense of how politics and real estate is so closely tied in India. And, you know, India -- corruption in real estate is very entrenched in India. This is something that's widely recognized as a problem. The World Bank Group actually ranks countries on the ease of doing business, and they have a ease of getting a construction permit. And India ranks 181 out of 190 countries. Last year it was 185. And part of the reason for that is that land and construction is very heavily regulated and requires, you know, several dozen, in some cases, permits in order to complete an actual building. And in order to get a permit, at every stage, it's very common, and often necessary, to pay a bribe, in order to move the process along. So that's one of the main reasons for it.
The other main reason is that real estate developers have emerged as a major funder for political campaigns. And the ties between builders and politicians is so deep that a phrase that's used, very common in India, is the "builder-politician nexus." And, you know, this isn't that unfamiliar to people here in New York City, and it certainly wasn't unfamiliar to a figure like Donald Trump. And it's the way he came up in real estate, as well. And this is something -- you know, and I read Wayne Barrett's book about Donald Trump, and reading about his investigations into, you know, how Trump got approvals for different projects, the parallels are really striking, you know. And Donald Trump, when he announced his presidency, I mean, he did say, "I've never met a politician that I couldn't make a deal with. If you can't make a deal with a politician, you're not very good, there's something wrong with you." And it's that mentality that also exists in the real estate industry in India.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to Donald Trump Jr. at the Global Business Summit in New Delhi, when he was in India, asking -- when he was asked about corruption there.
SUPRIYA SHRINATE: Are some some sections of Indian industry willing to bend rules where it suits them?
DONALD TRUMP JR.: Well, listen, I think there's an entrepreneurial spirit here that is, you know -- again, it needs no further explanation, though the media will say that I said something totally different. But, so, there's an entrepreneurial spirit here, you know, that is different than elsewhere in the world. ... You know, I have seen changes come. You know, once I got with the right people and understood, I have seen reforms -- though I'm not talking policy. I'm saying, as an outside businessman coming in, over the couple years, you know, I have seen changes. You know, some of the reforms probably hit everyone, but they also weeded out in the real estate sector, which was -- you know, if you were a developer, it was a four-letter word. OK? There was no trust, because you were promised X, and you were delivered X-minus, if anything at all. And that doesn't work in the long term. So I think there's been, you know, a burden imposed on all developers. The ones who have done a good job, the ones who are well-intentioned, the ones that I'm now, you know, truly friends with, they've done a good job. And they'll rise to the top anyway. It will weed out the bad players. And that needed to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: "The ones I'm truly friends with," the "good" developers. That's Donald Trump Jr. Anjali Kamat, talk about the developers he does business with in India.
ANJALI KAMAT: Well, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have five different projects, as I mentioned. So, each project, they've got a few different partners. And what's really interesting is that almost all of the partners have a long history of legal entanglements, have a long history of being investigated for tax evasion by the government. At least three of them are very closely connected to very powerful political officials. Two of them are -- have close connections to powerful political officials who are in the ruling party right now, who are part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, which is the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One of his partners is actually a political official himself. He's a five-term state lawmaker in Bombay, now called Mumbai. And Mangal Prabhat Lodha is one of the wealthiest men in the country. He's also a lawmaker. And he shares the same kind of ideological and political vision, in some ways. They're both right-wing politicians, both developers who turned into politicians. His campaign slogan, a couple of years ago, became "Making Mumbai great again." And both the Lodha Group and the other -- another group in North India, in Gurgaon, called IREO, both of whom have ties to the ruling BJP, have also been under investigation on allegations of money laundering. So, these are -- you know, these might be close friends of Don Jr., but there's a lot of questions about how exactly they were vetted and what their reputations are.
AMY GOODMAN: During his presidential campaign, in October 2016, right before the election, Donald Trump attended a fundraiser in Edison, New Jersey, organized by the conservative lobbying group the Republican Hindu Coalition. Let's go to a part of the future president's comments.
DONALD TRUMP: I am a big fan of Hindu, and I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan. Big, big fan. Let me start by stating right up front that if I'm elected president, the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House. That, I can guarantee you. That, I can tell you. I'm involved in two massive developments in India, you probably know. Very successful. Wonderful, wonderful partners. Very beautiful. And I must say, I became involved because I have great confidence, and I have great confidence in India. Incredible people and an incredible country.
AMY GOODMAN: Later in his speech, Donald Trump praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the far-right Hindu nationalist.
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