Trump's Mortgage-Fraud Accusations Could Backfire And The Reason Couldn't Be Clearer

After months of levying accusations of mortgage fraud against a number of opposing political figures, President Donald Trump has been outed for the same behavior. On December 8, 2025, nonprofit news outlet ProPublica shared details about two specific mortgage agreements signed by Trump in 1993 and 1994. The documents show that Trump listed a Palm Beach, Florida, property as his primary residence in a December 1993 mortgage agreement, but listed a nearby house as his primary residence in a second mortgage agreement less than two months later.

Despite both these claims, he didn't wind up living in either property, as he was residing in New York at the time. With that said, experts have highlighted that this practice isn't necessarily illegal, but it has not stopped Trump from repeatedly attempted to pursue disciplinary action against members of the Democratic party for exhibiting similar mortgage behavior. Trump even went so far as to call their actions "deceitful and potentially illegal" when accusing Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, Lisa Cook, of mortgage fraud in a letter posted on Truth Social. 

When pressed about the evidence suggesting Trump's own dishonest mortgage claims, a White House Representative denied the accusations to USA Today, stating, "President Trump has never, or will ever, break the law." If the evidence holds true, the president may have yet another major legal dispute on his hands in the coming years.

In August 2025, Trump attempted to remove economist Lisa Cook from her position on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by alleging she claimed her primary residence was in Michigan weeks before signing another document saying the same thing about a property in Georgia. A few weeks later, the Supreme Court voted to stay her firing, though the court did agree to a hearing about the case — which is currently slated for January 2026. Though Cook remains in her position, as of December 2025, she's far from the only Democrat Trump's attempted to out in this specific way.

In October 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted for fraud. Allegedly, she rented out a property that she'd informed her mortgage provider would be her primary residence. Despite Trump calling for her prosecution, the indictment was ultimately dropped and attempts to re-indict were also refused due to a lack of evidence. To make matters worse, these are far from the only examples of how Trump has leveraged this particular complaint — Senator Adam Schiff is currently under investigation for similar accusations while Representative Eric Swalwell has also been called out. 

However, according to Shirley Wyner, widow and former business partner to Trump's real estate agent, Trump is guilty of the exact same "crime" he has accused so many political opponents of. Speaking with ProPublica about the Florida properties cited in the report, she stated, "They were rentals from the beginning. President Trump never lived there." Now that Trump has been publicly outed for what's essentially the same form of wrongdoing, he could be as susceptible to prosecution or removal from office as his targets.