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Trump’s Charitable Giving Is Not What He Claimed
Trump's $100 Million In Charitable Giving Is Not What He Claimed (Image: TheSmokingGun)
Back in March presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, came forward and said that the Republican front-runner had given more than $100 million to charities.
He didn’t stop there, though, he also said that “we’ll be happy to release the information…I’ll give you a full accounting of the 100-plus million dollars that he’s provided to charitable causes throughout the years.” They might be regretting that statement now.
An analysis, that was conducted by the Washington Post, has now revealed that the billionaire did not donate anything from his personal finances. Instead of donating cash, Trump has cited that he gave away free rounds of golf, through auctions and raffles, as donations.
His charitable giving didn’t stop there, it is also cited that he gave land-conservation agreements to forgo development rights on properties that he, or his business, already owned.
Trump also claimed a piece of land that he gave to the state of New York in 2006 as a charitable gift, yet that was years before the period of time that he claimed to have donated $100 million. Not to mention donations from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, and yet according to the Post, the foundation has never received a personal check from Trump between the years of 2009 to 2014.
Although the Trump Foundation is largely funded by others, Donald Trump does decide where the money is donated.
It reveals how Trump has demonstrated less of the soaring, world-changing ambitions in his philanthropy than many other billionaires. Instead, his giving appears narrowly tied to his business and, now, his political interests.
His foundation, for example, frequently gave money to groups that paid to use Trump’s facilities, and it donated to conservatives who could help promote Trump’s rise in the Republican Party. The foundation’s second-biggest donation described on the campaign’s list went to the charity of a man who had settled a lawsuit with one of Trump’s golf courses after being denied a hole-in-one prize.
Although a 93-page list of Trumps charitable givings was provided to the Associated Press, they shared it with the Post.
The Post has published the list, you can see it here.
It appears, from looking over the list of charitable organizations that received donations from Trump, the majority of them went to organizations that would help either his political campaigning or his business.
It seems that the billionaire philanthropist isn’t as generous with his charitable givings as he has previously claimed.