For decades, Donald Trump has publicly pledged money to various charities and then never followed through with actual donations. David Farenthold of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize this year for his investigative digging into Donald Trump’s decades of non-existent or exaggerated charitable donations. So when White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this week that Trump would be donating $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, many people reacted with skepticism and said, “show us the receipt.” Especially because of the vague details when the pledge was announced:
President Trump has pledged to donate $1 million from his personal fortune to storm victims in Texas and Louisiana.
“He would like to join in the efforts that a lot of the people that we’ve seen across this country do,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Thursday during her daily briefing at the White House.
Ms. Sanders said the president has not decided when or where he will send the donation.
In the original announcement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemed clear on the fact this would be coming from Trump’s personal funds.
Ms. Huckabee, pressed by reporters, said she wasn’t sure whether the donation would come from Mr. Trump’s foundation or his own bank account, saying only that it would come from the president’s “personal” funds.
At Friday’s press conference, she was again pressed on where Trump’s $1 million pledge would be coming from and she seemed to be easing off the idea, providing wiggle room, on whether the money would be coming from Donald Trump himself. In fact, Huckabee appeared to stammer when asked and quickly tried to deflect the question:
Who knew donating money could be so complicated! Couldn’t they donate the proceeds from the hats they've been promoting and selling throughout the hurricane coverage?
Perhaps the white hot spotlight will force Trump to follow through on this promise, but I’m personally not holding my breath. If history is any indicator, he’ll find a way to get the funds from another source and funnel them through his sketchy Trump Foundation, even though Forbes Magazine estimates his net worth to be $3.5 billion. You’d think someone who has made a career out of bragging about his (inherited) wealth and sits in the highest office in the land would be able to actually follow through on a $1 million promise, without hesitation, to people who’ve lost everything they own. Hell, it’s $4 million less than the bounty he offered for President Obama’s birth certificate!
For comparison, we asked the Daily Kos community to chip in and this amazing online family has donated nearly $550,000 to date. Real, actual hard cash that is already benefiting 15 designated nonprofit organizations that are on the ground doing the hard work. The president might be shady when it comes to donations, but y’all are the real deal. Thank you to each and every one of of you who’ve donated or volunteered.