Beginning in at least 2015, Donald Trump promised he would forego a salary if he became president. Shortly after the election, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes and promised he would forego his salary:
“Well, I’ve never commented on this, but the answer is no,” Trump said. “I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a -- I don’t even know what it is.”
Stahl reminded the president-elect, “[That’s] $400,000 you’re giving up.”
Again, Trump answered, “No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.”
Although he says he’d never discussed it publicly, he’d been making this same claim since at least 2015. Here is a short video from his own Twitter feed where he makes the same claim:
And where does that pledge stand now? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
MSNBC requested details and documentation about any salary donations from the White House, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management, which all declined to say whether Trump has donated any of his salary to date. (OPM referred questions to the White House.)
Last month, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the website Politifact that Trump "will be giving" his salary "back to Treasury or donating." The site noted the White House "declined to answer several inquiries into whether Trump has gotten a paycheck already."
That’s not the only murky financial promise he made and won’t follow up with documentation:
During the transition, Trump also unveiled a plan to "donate all profits from foreign governments' patronage of his hotels and similar businesses" to the Treasury Department. The plan was released by Trump's private law firm, Morgan Lewis, but no system or accounting has been released for how or when such donations will be processed or disclosed.
Of course, Trump has a long history of bragging about donations he never made.
