Eric Trump Bragged That Funding For Family Golf Courses Came From Russia, Reporter Says

North Carolina native James Dodson seems like a thorough and reliable enough golf reporter to take him at his word. He co-authored legend Arnold Palmer’s memoir, among other projects, and is an insider in the world of golf. So it’s important to listen to what he said on Friday about Donald and Eric Trump in an interview with Boston’s WBUR.

According to the public radio station, back in 2014, Donald Trump invited Dodson, who grew up a Republican, to Trump’s new North Carolina golf course to play a few rounds. His exchange with a Trump PR rep played out as follows:

“This PR guy kept calling me and inviting me,” Dodson says. “And he kept saying things like, ‘Oh, Donald Trump loves your books.’ And I kept saying, ‘Donald Trump doesn’t read books, I’m told. And he hadn’t a clue who I am.’ Anyway, he called three or four times. Finally, I said yes.”

At the time—less than three years before he was to become a president enveloped by accusations that his campaign colluded with Russian intelligence to help get him elected—Trump was busy buying and flipping failing golf courses across the country. It was a curious thing to do, Dodson thought, wondering where Trump would get all that money.

So he asked: “I said, ‘What are you using to pay for these courses?’ And he just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million,” WBUR’s Bill Littlefield reports.

With Dodson’s curiosity piqued even more by Trump’s bragging about access to a staggering amount of capital, he asked Eric Trump during a round of golf where the Trumps had come up with that kind of money. Eric’s response is troubling—and potentially damaging.

According to Dodson and WBUR, this is what Eric Trump said:

“So when I got in the cart with Eric,” Dodson says, “as we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks—because of the recession, the Great Recession—have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’ And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia…We just go there all the time.’”

Hey Donald, let’s have a look at those tax returns.

Read the entire account here.