Virgin Group founder Richard Branson told CNBC on Wednesday that he met President Donald Trump once back in the 1990s when the then-real estate tycoon was dealing with bankruptcy of one of his companies.
Branson, a billionaire and a Hillary Clinton supporter during the 2016 election, told CNBC that Trump spent the meeting talking about how to “destroy people who refused to lend him money when one of his companies went bankrupt.”
Branson said that Trump invited him over to dinner at his house, right after one of Trump’s companies filed for bankruptcy, according to CNBC. Branson thought that they would have conversations about “a whole range of issues.” However, “he just spent the whole lunch talking about five people he rung up to try to get help from … and how these people had refused to help him and how his life’s mission was to going to be to destroy these people,” Branson said, according to CNBC.
The White House did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Branson could not remember the exact date of the meeting or which company Trump had said went bankrupt.
According to CNBC, it is well documented that Trump’s real estate empire was on the verge of collapsing in the 1990s. Trump referred to the steps he took to turn his company around during one of the presidential debates with Hillary Clinton last year. At the time, Trump said, “I take advantage of the laws of the nation because I’m running a company,” reports CNBC.
Branson has never shied away from criticizing Trump. During the campaign, Branson called Trump “irrational, aggressive, and lacking informed ideas,” reports CNBC.
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