Oh Jesus: Did Trump Really Skim Charity Money from Kids with Cancer?
Color us shocked.
by Bess Levin
June 6, 2017 9:01 pm
Among the many campaign scandals that would have sunk a lesser candidate, but somehow had little or no effect on Donald Grab em by the p---y Trump, were a series of damning allegations about the Donald J. Trump Foundation. An investigation by The Washington Post revealed that Trump hadnt actually given his namesake charity any of his own money since 2008, and that since then, all of the donations have been other peoples moneyan arrangement that experts say is almost unheard of for a family foundation. In many instances, the Post reported, Trump would then pass the money on to other charities, which [were] often under the impression that it [was] Trumps own money. (Trump previously told the Post I dont have to give you records but Ive given millions away, though the paper was unable to verify the donations and Trump has not released his tax returns which would, among other things, detail his charitable giving.)
Other alleged business practices at the foundation were, somehow, even shadier. The Post found that Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from [the Donald J. Trump foundation] to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaires for-profit businesses. The charity also quite generously donated $25,000 in 2013 to then Florida Attorney General Pam Bondis political fund-raising committee, at a time when Bondi was, totally coincidentally, deciding whether or not to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University (she ultimately decided not to; Trump and his institute of higher learning ultimately settled a class action brought by former students for $25 million). (Aides to both Trump and Bondi told the Post the gift and Trump University case had nothing to do with each other.) Then there was the somewhat bizarre story of Trump bidding on a six-foot-tall painting of himself at a fund-raiser auction and paying the $20,000 tab with the foundations money. In November, after the election, the Donald J. Trump Foundation admitted to self-dealing, a.k.a., per Politico, using charitable funds to benefit the leaders of the organization or their family members.
The disreputable, potentially illegal behavior apparently doesnt end with Trumps own namesake charity, however. According to a report by Forbes, Trump also allegedly used his son Erics charity to enrich his business at the expense of, wait for it, kids with cancer.
According to reporter Dan Alexander, for the first four years of its existence, the Eric Trump Foundation, founded in 2007 by Donalds second son, Eric Trump, mostly made good on its promises to donors: it sent virtually all its money to sick kids in need at St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, with the bulk of the money raised through the charitys annual golf invitational, held at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York. Because the event takes place at Daddy Trumps club, Eric Trump told Alexander, We get to use our assets 100 percent free of chargemeaning that instead of having to deduct for costs like renting the space and other items, nearly all the funds went to the kids. In reality, the tournament itself cost about $50,000 for the years 2007 through 2010, which Alexander notes is not quite the zero-cost advantage that a donor might expect given who owned the club, but at least is in line with what other charities pay to host outings at Trump courses. But starting in 2011, things took a big turn. What changed? Well give you two guesses, but youll only need one: Donald Trump got involved.
Pachamama
(16,887 posts)...girlfriend who is asleep on the couch because he knows his son is passed out and won't do anything.
Yeah, I said it...and it wouldn't surprise me if Trump has in fact done that in his sons life already. But it's as if he decides he is going to take something and do with it as he pleases and then dare his son to do something - or be disinherited.
Don't think so? Look what he did to his Uncle and sick nephew.
So he pillaged and took from cancer kids his son was trying to help....
No shock or surprise here....
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)K n R for visibility
riversedge
(70,218 posts)monmouth4
(9,705 posts)DavidDvorkin
(19,477 posts)Maybe they even admire him for it.
calimary
(81,267 posts)That wasn't an election last November. It was a freakin' HEIST.
Gothmog
(145,242 posts)XRubicon
(2,212 posts)as they say.
We saw part of a 2005 tax return... that was the top of the real estate bubble, any doofus could flip real estate then and be rich.
I'd like to see his 2009 tax return. I bet the family was wiped out and had to go to Russians for loans.