Within months of becoming president in 2017, Donald Trump faced questions about the money behind his golf empire. The intrigue started with a comment from a golf writer, who claimed that Trump’s son Eric said his father got all the funding he needed out of Russia. That story, which Eric denied, caught the attention of people scrutinizing Trump’s business, including the founder of the firm that helped produce the Steele dossier, who hinted at possible money laundering in November 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

Journalists swarmed. The Washington Post, New Yorker and New York Times all searched for answers, gawking at the hundreds of millions Trump spent on golf properties without uncovering the source of the funds. The resort investments—especially two acquired in 2014—particularly mystified Trump skeptics, who wondered why he would risk more than $175 million of his own cash on money-losing assets. Politicians in Scotland, home to two Trump golf resorts, called for something known as an Unexplained Wealth Order, intended to expose illicit money. Meanwhile, Forbes conducted its own investigation and, after combing through stacks of documents, believes it solved the mystery.

Much of the financing—roughly $250 million—came from members of Trump’s private clubs, who paid initiation deposits that they could theoretically get back if they tired of the place after 30 years. Unlike bank loans, these deposits came with no interest payments and no mortgage filings, keeping the liabilities both cheap and hidden. More money—over $450 million—landed via a series of windfalls, including loan repayments, tax refunds and property refinancings, that attracted little attention but provided tons of cash.

Trump, who failed to get additional financing from his go-to lender, Deutsche Bank, emptied his pockets, deploying almost all of his stockpile as he simultaneously remade the European golf resorts and bankrolled a presidential campaign. Although his member-financing now looks brilliant, his cash bets seem reckless, depleting Trump’s liquidity to such an extent that, after the 2016 election, he apparently had to secure an emergency loan, which he also kept under wraps. Trump survived, though, and today his golf-and-club portfolio is the fastest-growing part of his real-estate empire, worth an estimated $1 billion.

Donald Trump paid $8 million for Mar-a-Lago in 1985. Today, it's worth an estimated $342 million, after subtracting membership liabilities.

The Republican nominee, whose representatives did not respond to a list of questions about this story, opened his first club in 1995, when he converted Mar-a-Lago from a private mansion to a bustling social club. Records suggest that he collected membership deposits from the outset, ultimately accumulating about $40 million, or more than four times the $8 million he originally spent on the 18-acre property in Palm Beach, Florida. Next, he built a golf course, finding a patch of ground 15 minutes to the west of Mar-a-Lago and transforming into the Trump International Golf Club. It opened in 1999, and Trump generated over $40 million of deposits at the club.

Closer to his New York home, he purchased properties in Westchester County and Bedminster,........

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