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Donald Trump’s Friends Seem to Be Borrowing a Lot For People Who Can’t Get Loans

Stephen Gandel 3:50 PM Eastern
http://fortune.com/2017/02/03/donald-trump-dodd-frank-friends-lending/

Carl Icahn, an advisor, and long-time friend to Donald Trump, doesn't seem to have any trouble getting a loan these days. He might want to tell President Donald Trump that.

On Friday, Trump started his promised roll back of Dodd-Frank, the banking reform that was passed in the wake of the financial crisis. Trump called the law a "disaster" and vowed to do "a big number" on financial regulations earlier this week. Trump also said Friday that he had first-hand evidence that Dodd-Frank was not working: His friends can't get loans.

“We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank, because frankly I have so many people, friends of mine, that have nice businesses and they can’t borrow money,” Trump said in announcing the review of Dodd-Frank on Friday. “They just can’t get any money because the banks just won’t let them borrow because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.”

However, plenty of Trump's friends and advisors seem to be doing just fine when it comes to borrowing. Icahn's company had its debt rating cut to junk in early 2016, but that hasn't seemed to impede its ability to get a loan. In the first nine months of last year, Icahn Enterprises took out nearly $400 million in additional debt. In all, Icahn Enterprises borrowing has risen to nearly $13 billion, up nearly 50% from where it was before the passage of Dodd-Frank, the financial reform bill that Trump says is killing the ability of banks to lend, as Trump noted on Friday, to his friends.

Also having no problem borrowing, it seems, is Stephen Schwarzman, the private equity executive who chairs Trump's Strategic and Advisory Forum and met Trump on Friday along with other business leaders. In September, Blackstone, Schwarzman's firm, secured $100 million in debt for a single building at 44 Wall Street, located just steps from Trump's own downtown office tower at 40 Wall Street. Schwarzman may have got the idea to take out the loan against the building from Trump. A year earlier, a Trump entity borrowed $160 million against Trump's Wall Street building.

In all, Blackstone's loans payable rose by $1.1 billion in the first nine months 2016. The company now has just over $12 billion in debt. In mid-2015, Seaworld, which was bought out by Blackstone in 2009, and is still the aquatic amusement park operator's biggest owner, took out a new $280 million term loan. The company's penguins have visited Blackstone's offices to say thanks.
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http://fortune.com/2017/02/03/donald-trump-dodd-frank-friends-lending/