No amount of money for the “billionaire” Trump is too small to illegally divert.
To give credit where it’s due, the New York attorney general is building on the case built in 2016 by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, whose search for legitimate charitable activity by Trump’s foundation consistently left the reporter comically empty-handed.
What Fahrenthold detailed was Trump’s utter disregard for the law in taking in tax-deductible contributions to his foundation and proceeding to spend the money on his personal and business needs.
New findings, for instance, show that the Trump Foundation’s largest-ever gift — $264,631 — was used to renovate a fountain outside the windows of Trump’s Plaza Hotel.
Its smallest-ever gift, for $7, was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, at a time when it cost $7 to register a new Scout. Trump’s oldest son was 11 at the time. Trump did not respond to a question about whether the money was paid to register him.
Take a moment to savor that last detail. A man claiming to be worth billions of dollars -- and who certainly flaunted the lifestyle -- appears to have illegally diverted $7 from a charitable foundation to pay his son’s Boy Scouts registration fee.
The 7 bucks Donald Trump used from his charitable foundation, to pay his son’s Boy Scout fee is a self-dealing transaction and illegal. Trump brags incessantly about being worth billions, but when it comes to gaming the legal system his actions reveal a plain old crook.
Aside from the 7 bucks, Donald Trump has used his charitable foundation to pay for several business and personal transactions. The New York Attorney says that’s illegal and is suing him now.
This New York Times article itself lists five self-dealing transactions totaling:
$305,000
The $10,000 portrait of Mr. Trump was one of “at least five self-dealing transactions” facilitated by the foundation, according to the attorney general’s office, violating tax regulations that prohibit using nonprofit charities for private interests.
In 2007, to settle a dispute between the City of Palm Beach and Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the foundation paid $100,000 to the Fisher House Foundation, another charity.
In 2012, a man named Martin B. Greenberg sued the Trump National Golf Club after he made a hole in one at a fund-raising golf tournament that had promised to pay $1 million to golfers who aced the 13th hole, as he did. As part of a settlement, the charitable foundation paid $158,000 to a foundation run by Mr. Greenberg.
The foundation also paid $5,000 to one organization for “promotional space featuring Trump International Hotels,” and another $32,000 to satisfy a pledge made by a privately held entity controlled by Mr. Trump to a charitable land trust.
The foundation lawsuit, and the referrals to the federal agencies, are the latest of Mr. Trump’s voluminous legal challenges, starting with the ongoing investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into ties between Mr. Trump, his associates and Russia.
From 7 bucks to hundreds of thousands in self-dealing transactions. No amount is too small for the Cheapskate-in-Chief. Donald Trump is as crooked as it gets.