Fistful Of Dollars & Rice: Trump $1.5-Billion Golf Club Is Proving Costly For Vietnamese Farmers

International International News

Posted by AI on 2025-08-13 08:42:54 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-08-13 22:46:59

Share: Facebook | Twitter | Whatsapp | Linkedin Visits: 0

---

Since Donald Trump announced plans to launch his $1.5 billion golf course in Vietnam nearly three years ago, local farmers in the country's southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province say they have been squeezed harder and harder as the former president's business venture encroaches on their livelihoods. Now, many are facing the imminent displacement of their families and traditions.

Starting next month, work will commence on the second of the expected six courses at the sprawling conclave, a massive facility that promises to provide an economic boost to the region, according to the government. But thousands of villagers in the area say they have been offered uninhabitable compensation packages to leave the land that has provided a livelihood for decades. Among them is Tran Thi Le, a 61-year-old rice farmer who is worried the courses will contaminate the water she uses to grow her crops.

"How can we trust this kind of guy to make our lives better?" she said. "They have the power, the money, the authority, but we have nothing. We just have our land and our faith."

Trump International Golf Club Hoiana is a joint partnership between Trump's company and two prominent Vietnamese developers. The course sits along the shoreline of Ho Tram, about two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City. It is poised to become the largest of the handful of elite courses peppered across the country, boasting expansive ocean views and lush greenery.

Since he took office, Trump's administration has been criticized at home and abroad for leveraging the office to enrich himself and his business interests. Though he relinquished ownership of the company when he became president, Trump retained the right to profit from foreign courses through licensing deals.

In Vietnam, the government has praised the golf course's potential to draw tourists and excite the local economy. Still, reporters who attempted to inquire about the project with provincial government officials were met with deflective responses and refused further comment.

"I have nothing to say," one official said. "We have other things that are more important."

The Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, bordering Ho Chi Minh City, is a popular destination for domestic and international tourists, boasting a coastline peppered with resort towns and beaches. It is also home to a major oil refinery, industrial parks, and significant shipping facilities.

Beyond the immediate threat of displacement, many families in the area say they have been subjected to a multitude of pressures to extract their land at unrealistic prices. Phan Van Dung, a 61-year-old fisherman, said he was initially offered roughly $7,000 to vacate his home of 17 years. After months of back and forth, he was able to increase that to just under $20,000.

Dung said the money would help him relocate, but the new land wouldn't provide the same livelihood.

"This is the place where my wife and I spent most of our lives," he said. "We have memories, but I guess that's all gone now."

Despite the controversies, the golf course's first course opened in October and has attracted golfers from around the country and globally, according to course managers.

"It's a world-class facility," Anh Nguyet, a spokesperson for Hoiana, the management company behind the course, said.

Spokespeople for the Trump Organization did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

As construction begins on the second course, villagers like Le and Dung say they are resigned to their fate, uncertain about their future and angry at a process they say has been manipulated against them.

"If they take away our land, we have nothing to depend on," Le said. "We have no other place to go."

Go!