He is so tight he squeaks when walks, not literally of course. Donald Trump is so cheap, though, he paid for his son’s Boy Scout seven-dollar fee out of the Trump Family Foundation. He directed the U.S. military to reroute for refueling in Scotland to shore up a filling station near one of his resorts. He even overcharged his Secret Service protective staff during all of his trips to various resorts he owned, apparently. But get this.
A reporter for The Washington Post and MSNBC contributor David Fahrenthold tweeted on July 24, 2017 about the incident:
‘In 1989, @realDonaldTrump apparently used a charity’s money to pay his son’s $7 registration fee for the Boy Scouts.’
But that was not the worst of it by far. Trump personally wrote a suspicious check for $25,000 on his family foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit regulated by Section 501(c)(3) in 2013. A 501 (c) (3) cannot do that. The Trump Family Foundation’s executives insisted they had no idea it was destined for a political group. But newly discovered records prove they lied as just as their boss did and does, according to The Daily Beast exclusive.
At the time, people believed that Trump had written this check from his foundation as a bribe to Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi’s political campaign in 2013. When this was discovered, Trump was already a presidential candidate. The timing appeared suspicious, as The New York Times wrote. But there was no proof — yet.
It seems that Bondi had decided to investigate Trump’s not-really-a-University, because a Florida resident had taken it and discovered it was a scam. The Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg claimed it was a mistake.
Then, contrary to previous claims from Trump’s presidential campaign and company executives, new emails acquired by The Daily Beast showed that Trump Organization employees were told this was a donation to a political group. These emails proved that Trump’s own executive assistant Rhona Graff had even met in person with the AG’s “finance director [Deborah Ramsey Aleksander] in New York City.”
Aleksander wrote to Graff:
‘Again, it was a pleasure meeting you today!!! Thanks again for always being so responsive and wonderful to work with. Let Mr. Trump know that we are SO VERY thankful for his commitment of 25k and If he wants to make it 50k, that’s perfectly acceptable. 🙂 Seriously, thanks again for everything!!!’
This is how the rest of it unfolded:
- Eric T. Schneiderman in 2016, that office helped win a $25 million class-action settlement from Trump “University.”
- Months after Bondi left office in 2019, she joined the Trump team fighting his impeachment.
- New records acquired by The Daily Beast from the NY AG Letitia James proved that Trump Organization employees were explicitly told this was a donation to a political group.
- These emails also proved that Trump’s own executive assistant had met in person with Bondi’s finance director in New York City.
- NY AG James has conducted numerous investigations into “Trump corporate entities over the years.”
Communications Director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Jordan Libowitz said:
‘It kind of blows up their whole story. The Trump Organization staffers knew they were making this political donation. There are no questions about it. There is no ambiguity.’
CREW’s communication director continued:
‘I don’t understand how you could be this sloppy, even for people working for Donald Trump.’
A high-level accountant for the Trump Foundation Jeff McConney said:
‘We probably didn’t know at that time that we probably shouldn’t be using foundation funds for this type of thing. We made a mistake.’
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
