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Donald Trump Takes Out a Prosper Loan to Fund Campaign

The billionaire presidential candidate receives a $35,000 personal loan from one of the leading marketplace lending platforms.

April 1, 2016 By Peter Renton 5 Comments

Views: 12

Donald Trump Helicopter

There was a surprising announcement from the presidential campaign of Donald Trump this morning. Sources inside the campaign revealed that Mr. Trump has successfully applied for and received a $35,000 personal loan from Prosper. He has committed those funds to his campaign.

I was astonished to hear this news given Mr. Trump’s large personal fortune so I contacted the campaign myself this morning. Here is Mr. Trump’s statement released just a short time ago:

It is very important to me to have a well-funded campaign. I decided to take out this loan on Prosper, not because I needed the money, I don’t, but it was a good business decision. I negotiated an incredible interest rate of 5.99% and decided to jump on this opportunity.

I immediately reached out to Aaron Vermut, the CEO of Prosper, for comment on such a high profile borrower and the huge boost in PR this must be for Prosper. But unfortunately he would neither confirm nor deny the existence of a loan from Mr. Trump citing Prosper’s privacy policy.

But Aaron did have a general comment about loaning money to wealthy individuals:

Billionaires have funding needs just like the rest of us. If they need a loan to put a down payment on an Aston Martin, repairs on their private jet, a new Rolex , a diamond encrusted toilet or even a presidential campaign we are here to help provide financing up to $35,000.

While the Trump campaign did not release the terms of his loan we can deduce from Mr. Trump’s statement that his loan is likely a 3-year AA-rated loan. The 5.99% APR is the lowest interest rate Prosper offers to first time borrowers which would be for those loan terms. Regardless, I expect this loan will be paid back early given the campaign has less than eight months to go.

I am very interested to see how this plays out in the media but as of this writing I have seen virtually no press coverage of this news, which is also surprising. Still, I expect we will see some articles written about this as the day goes on and this will indeed provide an expected PR boost for Prosper.

Regardless of your political views I am interested to hear what Lend Academy readers think of this interesting development. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Filed Under: Peer to Peer Lending Tagged With: April Fools Day, Donald Trump, Prosper

Views: 12

Comments

  1. Matt Kiggins says

    April 1, 2016 at 5:43 am

    Is it a coincidence this posting came out on April Fool’s Day? This makes little to no sense why a Billionaire would take out a $35k loan and was “able to negotiate an incredible rate” – cmon! This will be a non story in the media, they are having too much fun putting him in awkward positions where he’s tripping over himself on policy issues.

    Reply
    • Travis says

      April 1, 2016 at 3:35 pm

      Dude, what’s wrong with you? Yes, It’s April Fool’s Day.

      Reply
  2. Observer says

    April 1, 2016 at 6:30 am

    LC’s stock will get back to its IPO price of $15…now that’s an April Fools joke

    Reply
  3. Alex Trepetin says

    April 8, 2016 at 6:33 am

    Dang it, Peter, I have stock in Prosper and I just mentally doubled the IPO price when I read your article.

    If any of the major news outlets (Bloomberg, AP) would have picked up this story and printed it, then I would’ve fell for it.

    I got skeptical at the 5.99%. Prosper doesn’t give out 5.99% if you’re SELF-EMPLOYED! I don’t care if you are The Donald.

    CA-Lender

    Reply
  4. CA-Lender says

    April 8, 2016 at 6:35 am

    Dang it, Peter, I have stock in Prosper and I just mentally doubled the IPO price when I read your article.

    If any of the major news outlets (Bloomberg, AP) would have picked up this story and printed it, then I would’ve fell for it.

    I got skeptical at the 5.99%. Prosper doesn’t give out 5.99% if you’re SELF-EMPLOYED! I don’t care if you are The Donald.

    Reply

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