Dan Alexander at Forbes just published a story about how Trump used his son Eric’s children’s cancer charity to funnel money into his own pockets. An excerpt:
How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business
LIKE AUTUMN LEAVES, sponsored Cadillacs, Ferraris and Maseratis descend on the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, in September for the Eric Trump Foundation golf invitational…
The best part about all this [the golf tournament to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital], according to Eric Trump, is the charity’s efficiency: Because he can get his family’s golf course for free and have most of the other costs donated, virtually all the money contributed will go toward helping kids with cancer. “We get to use our assets 100% free of charge,” Trump tells Forbes.
That’s not the case. In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it’s clear that the course wasn’t free–that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.
Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization.
And while donors to the Eric Trump Foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than $500,000 was re-donated to other charities, many of which were connected to Trump family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at Trump courses.
All of this seems to defy federal tax rules and state laws that ban self-dealing and misleading donors. It also raises larger questions about the Trump family dynamics and whether Eric and his brother, Don Jr., can be truly independent of their father.
Go read the whole thing. It’s not surprising, exactly — we know Trump is a corrupt, greedy shithead. It was obvious all along that he is an awful person in every respect.
But skimming off a children’s cancer hospital charity haul? That may bump him up from Galactic to Universal Shitlord status. Trump might actually be one of the worst human beings in this country who doesn’t have a death row address. Keep digging, reporters. There’s got to be a puppy mill somewhere.