A new investigation says President Donald Trump may have done the same thing he and his administration accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of doing: mortgage fraud. The report claims Trump listed more than one home as his main residence in order to get better mortgage terms.
Mortgages for a primary residence usually come with lower interest rates and better conditions than loans for vacation homes or rental properties. Because of this, falsely claiming a home is your main residence can be considered fraud.
According to an investigation by ProPublica, Trump signed a mortgage in 1993 for a home in Palm Beach, Florida, and listed it as his primary residence. Less than two months later, he took out another mortgage for a different nearby property and again labeled it as his primary residence.
ProPublica reported that Trump does not appear to have ever lived in either home. At the time, he was living in New York. The two properties were located next to his Mar-a-Lago estate and were used as investment properties that were rented out. Investigators say this is exactly the kind of situation Trump’s own administration has pointed to as evidence of mortgage fraud.
The White House denied that Trump did anything wrong. A spokesperson said both mortgages came from the same lender and argued that it would not make sense for a bank to agree to defraud itself. The spokesperson said there was no attempt to deceive anyone.
The accusations against Trump closely mirror those made against Letitia James. Last year, the Justice Department accused James of bank fraud and making false statements while securing a mortgage for a second home in Virginia. James denied the charges. A judge dismissed the initial case, and two separate grand juries later refused to bring the charges again, dealing a major blow to efforts to prosecute her.
Legal experts who reviewed Trump’s mortgage records for ProPublica noted the irony. Kathleen Engel, a law professor and mortgage finance expert at Suffolk University, said Trump has taken a very hard line on cases like this. She said that by his own standards, Trump would have to investigate or punish himself. She also pointed out that Trump has suggested this type of behavior should disqualify someone from public office.
Trump and James have a long history of conflict. James became one of Trump’s strongest critics after she sued him, his adult children, and the Trump Organization in 2022. Her lawsuit followed a three-year investigation that accused Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to get better loans, insurance deals, and tax benefits.
In 2024, a New York court found Trump liable for fraud. In 2025, an appeals court threw out the nearly $500 million penalty, saying it was unconstitutionally excessive. However, the court did not overturn the fraud finding itself, and the case is now being reviewed by New York’s highest court.
Because of this history, supporters of James believe Trump is trying to retaliate against her. James has said the attempts to prosecute her are part of what she calls Trump’s effort to weaponize the justice system for political revenge.
The investigation has renewed questions about whether Trump plays by the same rules he demands others follow, and whether powerful political figures are being treated differently than ordinary Americans.
