More lies
Trump’s been telling porkies again, or still – these about his charitable donations. It’s the familiar pattern: he brags about how great he is, reporters ask questions, it turns out he was telling lies.
Even the most unsparing critic of the news media cannot deny the tremendous effort put forth by Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold as he spent months doggedly trying to document all of Donald Trump’s donations to charity. The task wasn’t easy—the candidate refused to release his tax returns—so Fahrenthold probed records going back decades, repeatedly questioned the Trump campaign, and contacted more than 400 nonprofit organizations while showing his work.
They show us a page from his notes – a list of nonprofits with a big NEVER beside nearly all of them. There are some no comments and some blanks. The big dollar amounts must be…on some other page.
This transparently conducted reporting yielded much information. The public learned that the Donald J. Trump Foundation once spent $20,000 on a portrait of Donald Trump; that $258,000 from his charitable foundation was used to settle legal problems; that he misled the audience of The Celebrity Apprentice about his giving.
He’s given away some money, but far less than he claims. He’s used some “donations” to his own advantage, like the one to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. He hides everything.
Records show Trump has given nothing to his foundation since 2008. Trump and his staff are adamant that he has given away millions privately, off the foundation’s books. Trump won’t release his tax returns, which would confirm such gifts, and his staff won’t supply details.
“There’s no way for you to know or understand,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told BuzzFeed recently.
And yet, Conor Friedersdorf points out, he goes on bragging anyway.
I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, ALL of which is given to charity, and media won't report!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016
I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, ALL of which is given to charity, and media won’t report!
The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016
The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!
He’s such a shameless liar.
Is he lying? Or does he consider Donald J. Trump (the REAL Donald Trump) to be a wonderful charity? Either way, he’s a boasting greedy ignoramus.
And as for never paying out anything – why should his charity foundation be any different than his businesses? Why should the Foundation pay its workers when so many of his other businesses chose not to?
I’m almost almost at the point where I need ‘smug arsehole’ image warnings on links like the Atlantic article. Although I’m glad editors pick out photos to make him look as sleazy as he is, it gets to you after a while. Especially that stupid a-ok gesture he makes… :-(
I remember a simpler time, when Obama’s hand gestures where the worst thing that the right-wing conspiracy theorists could make shit up about. The terrorist fist-bumps, black power salutes and muslim raised fingers. Oh happy days! Now we have genuine, exposable, evidence-based conspiracies playing out on a daily basis – something they should be enthralled by – and we get pizzagate.
The shamelessness of it all is remarkable. I think I need to install one of those plugins that replaces images of Trump with puppies and kittens.
I realize this is probably obvious to many, but I want to point out another way in which he’s not only lying but doesn’t even know how to lie convincingly about this.
I’m the executive at a nonprofit charity. The kind with the IRS tax designation 501(c)(3). This is this the kind of charity where a donor can deduct the contribution from her taxes. Think the Red Cross, your local food pantry, animal shelter, educational nonprofit. Also the same designation as charities like those run by Trump or Hillary Clinton. It’s all the same beast for tax purposes:
1. No charity in the world sends 100 percent of its money to other charities, nor does it spend 100 percent of its money “on the mission.” That is not objectively possible.
2. Why? Because humans have to be paid to carry out the mission. This is why charities have staff. Only the tiniest charitable groups of maybe a few hundred or thousand active donors run entirely on volunteer support.
3. Even those few charities that are all volunteer have costs. The minute a volunteer puts a first class stamp on an envelope to send a donor a thank you letter, that’s a percentage of the charity’s money that it spent on something other than the core mission. It’s an administrative expense.
Again, it’s *not possible* for any charity under any circumstances to have no overhead costs.
4. No respectable charity would ever make that ludicrous claim. First because it’s not true, and second because it’s not believable. We in the nonprofit sector work hard to spend as much as we can directly on the mission and as little as possible on “administration.” But that itself is a game anyway, since the mission happens through the administrative expense of paying professionals to carry it out.
[…] a comment by Josh Spokes on More […]
Sorbus – I know – me too. I said to the screen: “Not the pinch, not the pinch.”
GOD I HATE THE PINCH.
At least some fun can be had from ‘The Pinch’. Noseflags!
http://imgur.com/a/f2pWu