The Donald has apparently donated big bucks to the Clinton Foundation:
New York real estate mogul Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka have donated a combined total of at least $105,000 to the Clinton Foundation, records show.
“Donald J. Trump” is listed on the foundation’s website as giving between $100,000 and $250,000 to the charitable organization.
“Ivanka Trump,” meanwhile, is listed as a donor who gifted between $5,001 and $10,000 to the nonprofit.
This is interesting on so many fronts.
The Clinton Foundation is, according to Clinton defenders, a charitable organization; and according to Clinton opponents, the equivalent of a PAC, a political slush fund.
It does seem to fund a number of worthwhile charitable efforts around the world, and engage in high-level arm-twisting and consciousness-raising around issues of global public health, though in ways that make it difficult to assess its effectiveness as an actual charity as opposed to a means for its principals to gain power, money, and prestige.
Certainly, one of those who could be counted among Clinton opponents, and critics of the Clinton Foundation, would be one Donald J. Trump:
Donald Trump, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, has repeatedly criticized Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for her lack of transparency concerning the foundation.
“If this was a Republican sitting right there, this would absolutely be considered illegal,” Trump said last month of the foundation’s activities on Fox News’s “Fox and Friends.”
“This is about jail time; this isn’t about the voters,” he added.
So, what is this about? Does short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump in fact know that the Clinton Foundation actually is a charity, and not a political fund-raiser, and that's why he donated to it? (At least for the tax deduction.)
Or is he secretly okay with fellow one-percenter Clinton becoming president, and he's donating in hopes of having some mojo in a Clinton Administration?
Or is he what many have suspected all along -- a supremely clever performance artist who's doing everything he can to undermine and discredit Republicans and the conservative tea party movement by siding with them as publicly, disreputably, and foolishly as possible?
So maybe if it was no big political deal for Donald Trump to donate to the Clinton Foundation because it's a charity, it was no big deal for George Stephanopoulos to do the same.
Not that Stephanopoulos should or shouldn't be kicked off moderating presidential debates because of it, one way or the other. He's a tool, and if it means there's less to see of him on my TV for any reason, that's fine with me.