Remember Donald Trump’s scam charity? Back in June 2018, the New York attorney general’s office sued the president, all three of his adult children, and the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity of “functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” and of engaging in “a shocking pattern of illegality.” The allegations in the suit included claims that:
$10,000 was spent on a portrait of the president, later found on display at a sports bar at the Trump Doral;
$100,000 was used to settle a legal dispute with the city of Palm Beach, which Trump resolved by contributing the amount to the Fisher House Foundation;
$258,000 was used to settle lawsuits against Trump and his businesses, including $158,000 to the Martin Greenberg Foundation, whose founder sued the Trump National Golf Club after it failed to pay him a promised $1 million for scoring a hole-in-one at a charity golf tournament;
$5,000 was used to advertise Trump Hotels.
In addition, the A.G. accused the foundation—whose board members included Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric— of violating campaign-finance laws by illegally coordinating with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, despite tax-exempt foundations being explicitly prohibited from “participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of a candidate.” On top of that, the suit alleged that the board never once held a meeting, and that Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg had no idea he was an officer until an investigator told him as much, all of which sounds super legit. Per the Washington Post, the largest donation in the charity’s 30-something-year history—$264,231 to the Central Park Conservancy—went toward restoring the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time. The smallest donation was a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts, which conveniently happened to be “the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year that his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.” (Yes, Trump is that much of a cheapskate.)
Anyway, last December the A.G.’s office announced that Trump would shut down the charity, and now he’s being forced by a judge to cough up $2 million to a group of charities to settle the suit. (Yes, the figure is a drop in the bucket compared to, say, the $25 million he was ordered to pay to settle lawsuits related to his fake university, but for a guy who couldn’t even pony up $7 to enroll his son in the Boy Scouts, it’s got to chafe.) In addition, the $1.8 million that remained in the foundation’s coffers will be distributed among several other charities. Incredibly, Trump, who had denied any wrongdoing, has attempted to spin this development as an act of charity on the foundation’s behalf. In a statement the Trump Foundation said it was “pleased to donate an additional $2 million” to “worthy organizations.”
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