Norman Bernstein
06-29-2016, 06:43 AM
It seems that the Clinton Foundation is being broadly characterized as some sort of evil, nefarious scheme by Bill and Hillary, accused of all sorts of supposed malfeasance.... part of the inventory of suspicions being cast their way.
Fortunately, we DO have people who are willing to dig for facts... as opposed to those who shamelessly distribute misinformation and distortion. A trump flack on a news program made a rather serious accusation about the Clinton foundation's charitable giving... an accusation that was, as it turns out, completely false. Kudos to the program's host for doing the research.
All of this, by the way, needs to be put into the context of Trump's charitable giving.... or, at least, what he claims to have given, and the promises he's made, to give... without delivering.
So, first, I offer the clip where the Trump flack makes the accusation.... and the fact check that proves it false:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKfh0QhMQ8
Next, the facts about Trump's own charitable giving:
In May, under pressure from the news media, Donald Trump made good on a pledge he made four months earlier: He gave (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/24/four-months-later-donald-trump-says-he-gave-1-million-to-veterans-group/) $1 million to a nonprofit group helping veterans’ families.Before that, however, when was the last time that Trump had given any of his own money to a charity?
If Trump stands by his promises, such donations should be occurring all the time. In the 15 years prior to the veterans donation, Trump promised to donate earnings from a wide variety of his moneymaking enterprises: “The Apprentice.” Trump Vodka. Trump University. A book. Another book. If he had honored all those pledges, Trump’s gifts to charity would have topped $8.5 million.
But in the 15 years prior to the veterans’ gift, public records show that Trump donated about $2.8 million through a foundation set up to give his money away — less than a third of the pledged amount — and nothing since 2009. 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 (https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-but-gave-little-to-his-ow?utm_term=.jtOQXnYBZ#.kiDjxzL5b) recently.
Hicks did not respond to repeated questions about Trump’s charity from The Washington Post. Trump earlier this month revoked The Post’s press credentials (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trump-revokes-post-press-credentials-calling-the-paper-dishonest-and-phony/2016/06/13/f9a61a72-31aa-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html) to cover his events.
[Months after fundraiser, Trump says he gave $1 million to veterans group (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-portrait-of-trump-the-donor-free-rounds-of-golf-but-no-personal-cash/2016/04/10/373b9b92-fb40-11e5-9140-e61d062438bb_story.html)]
In recent weeks, The Post tried to answer the question by digging up records going back to the late 1980s and canvassing a wide swath of nonprofits with some connection to Trump.
That research showed that Trump has a long-standing habit of promising to give to charity. But Trump’s follow-through on those promises was middling — even at the beginning, in his early days as a national celebrity.
In the 1980s, Trump pledged to give away royalties from his first book to fight AIDS and multiple sclerosis. But he gave less to those causes than he did to his older daughter’s ballet school.
In recent years, Trump’s *follow-through on his promises has been seemingly nonexistent.
The Post contacted 188 charities searching for evidence of personal gifts from Trump in the period between 2008 and this May. The Post sought out charities that had some link to Trump, either because he had given them his foundation’s money, appeared at their charity galas or praised them publicly.
The search turned up just one donation in that period — a 2009 gift of between $5,000 and $9,999 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.
‘An agent for charities’
In all, when the $1 million gift to veterans is added to his giving through the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump has given at least $3.8 million to charity since 2001. That is a significant sum, although not among billionaires. For example, hedge-fund titan Stanley Druckenmiller (http://www.forbes.com/profile/stanley-druckenmiller/?list=forbes-400), just behind Trump on Forbes’s rankings (http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/3/#version:static) of net worth, gave $120 million (http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/133/735/2014-133735187-0b5aa6a4-F.pdf) to his foundation in 2013 alone.
What has set Trump apart from other wealthy philanthropists is not how much he gives — it is how often he promises that he is going to give.
From 1988: “To the homeless, to Vietnam veterans, for AIDS, multiple sclerosis,” Trump said about proceeds from his first book, “The Art of the Deal. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399594493?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=0399594493)” “Originally, I figured they’d get a couple of hundred thousand, but because of the success of ‘The Art of the Deal,’ they’ll get four or five million.’’
From 2015: “The profits of my book?” Trump said when a reporter asked (http://www.c-span.org/video/?400229-1/donald-trump-news-conference&start=704) about what he would do with the proceeds from his most recent book, “Crippled America. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501137964?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1501137964)” “I’m giving them away, to a lot of different — including the vets. ’Kay?”
These promises seemed designed to reassure potential customers and voters and to reconcile two sides of Trump’s public persona. On one hand, Trump said he had so much money that he didn’t need more. But on the other hand, he was always selling something.
The explanation was that the money Trump was making wasn’t for him to keep.
“I am acting as an agent for charities,” Trump said in 1989 at the unveiling of Trump: The Game. In news accounts, he estimated the board game alone would bring in $20 million for charity.
Milton Bradley, which made the game, saw the need for such a promise firsthand. After the company released the game — a Monopoly-like board game with Trump branding — it didn’t sell.
“The game was just nailed to the shelf,” said George DiTomassi, who was president of Milton Bradley at the time. One problem, he said, was that customers were not told about Trump’s pledge to give proceeds to charity. “They felt perhaps this was going to be something that a millionaire would make some money on,” DiTomassi said.
The TV commercial for the product was changed. “Mr. Trump’s proceeds from Trump: The Game will be donated to charity,” a new voice-over said at the end.
It still didn’t work. The game tanked.
Still, Trump said he made $880,000 from it, and even more from “The Art of the Deal.” In 1987, the mogul started the Donald J. Trump Foundation to donate his royalties.
But the proceeds didn’t go straight to charity. They went straight into Trump’s bank account.
The full article has more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-we-found-less-than-10000-over-7-years/2016/06/28/cbab5d1a-37dd-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html
Fortunately, we DO have people who are willing to dig for facts... as opposed to those who shamelessly distribute misinformation and distortion. A trump flack on a news program made a rather serious accusation about the Clinton foundation's charitable giving... an accusation that was, as it turns out, completely false. Kudos to the program's host for doing the research.
All of this, by the way, needs to be put into the context of Trump's charitable giving.... or, at least, what he claims to have given, and the promises he's made, to give... without delivering.
So, first, I offer the clip where the Trump flack makes the accusation.... and the fact check that proves it false:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKfh0QhMQ8
Next, the facts about Trump's own charitable giving:
In May, under pressure from the news media, Donald Trump made good on a pledge he made four months earlier: He gave (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/24/four-months-later-donald-trump-says-he-gave-1-million-to-veterans-group/) $1 million to a nonprofit group helping veterans’ families.Before that, however, when was the last time that Trump had given any of his own money to a charity?
If Trump stands by his promises, such donations should be occurring all the time. In the 15 years prior to the veterans donation, Trump promised to donate earnings from a wide variety of his moneymaking enterprises: “The Apprentice.” Trump Vodka. Trump University. A book. Another book. If he had honored all those pledges, Trump’s gifts to charity would have topped $8.5 million.
But in the 15 years prior to the veterans’ gift, public records show that Trump donated about $2.8 million through a foundation set up to give his money away — less than a third of the pledged amount — and nothing since 2009. 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 (https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-but-gave-little-to-his-ow?utm_term=.jtOQXnYBZ#.kiDjxzL5b) recently.
Hicks did not respond to repeated questions about Trump’s charity from The Washington Post. Trump earlier this month revoked The Post’s press credentials (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trump-revokes-post-press-credentials-calling-the-paper-dishonest-and-phony/2016/06/13/f9a61a72-31aa-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html) to cover his events.
[Months after fundraiser, Trump says he gave $1 million to veterans group (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-portrait-of-trump-the-donor-free-rounds-of-golf-but-no-personal-cash/2016/04/10/373b9b92-fb40-11e5-9140-e61d062438bb_story.html)]
In recent weeks, The Post tried to answer the question by digging up records going back to the late 1980s and canvassing a wide swath of nonprofits with some connection to Trump.
That research showed that Trump has a long-standing habit of promising to give to charity. But Trump’s follow-through on those promises was middling — even at the beginning, in his early days as a national celebrity.
In the 1980s, Trump pledged to give away royalties from his first book to fight AIDS and multiple sclerosis. But he gave less to those causes than he did to his older daughter’s ballet school.
In recent years, Trump’s *follow-through on his promises has been seemingly nonexistent.
The Post contacted 188 charities searching for evidence of personal gifts from Trump in the period between 2008 and this May. The Post sought out charities that had some link to Trump, either because he had given them his foundation’s money, appeared at their charity galas or praised them publicly.
The search turned up just one donation in that period — a 2009 gift of between $5,000 and $9,999 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.
‘An agent for charities’
In all, when the $1 million gift to veterans is added to his giving through the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump has given at least $3.8 million to charity since 2001. That is a significant sum, although not among billionaires. For example, hedge-fund titan Stanley Druckenmiller (http://www.forbes.com/profile/stanley-druckenmiller/?list=forbes-400), just behind Trump on Forbes’s rankings (http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/3/#version:static) of net worth, gave $120 million (http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/133/735/2014-133735187-0b5aa6a4-F.pdf) to his foundation in 2013 alone.
What has set Trump apart from other wealthy philanthropists is not how much he gives — it is how often he promises that he is going to give.
From 1988: “To the homeless, to Vietnam veterans, for AIDS, multiple sclerosis,” Trump said about proceeds from his first book, “The Art of the Deal. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399594493?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=0399594493)” “Originally, I figured they’d get a couple of hundred thousand, but because of the success of ‘The Art of the Deal,’ they’ll get four or five million.’’
From 2015: “The profits of my book?” Trump said when a reporter asked (http://www.c-span.org/video/?400229-1/donald-trump-news-conference&start=704) about what he would do with the proceeds from his most recent book, “Crippled America. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501137964?ie=UTF8&tag=thewaspos09-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1501137964)” “I’m giving them away, to a lot of different — including the vets. ’Kay?”
These promises seemed designed to reassure potential customers and voters and to reconcile two sides of Trump’s public persona. On one hand, Trump said he had so much money that he didn’t need more. But on the other hand, he was always selling something.
The explanation was that the money Trump was making wasn’t for him to keep.
“I am acting as an agent for charities,” Trump said in 1989 at the unveiling of Trump: The Game. In news accounts, he estimated the board game alone would bring in $20 million for charity.
Milton Bradley, which made the game, saw the need for such a promise firsthand. After the company released the game — a Monopoly-like board game with Trump branding — it didn’t sell.
“The game was just nailed to the shelf,” said George DiTomassi, who was president of Milton Bradley at the time. One problem, he said, was that customers were not told about Trump’s pledge to give proceeds to charity. “They felt perhaps this was going to be something that a millionaire would make some money on,” DiTomassi said.
The TV commercial for the product was changed. “Mr. Trump’s proceeds from Trump: The Game will be donated to charity,” a new voice-over said at the end.
It still didn’t work. The game tanked.
Still, Trump said he made $880,000 from it, and even more from “The Art of the Deal.” In 1987, the mogul started the Donald J. Trump Foundation to donate his royalties.
But the proceeds didn’t go straight to charity. They went straight into Trump’s bank account.
The full article has more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promised-millions-to-charity-we-found-less-than-10000-over-7-years/2016/06/28/cbab5d1a-37dd-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html