GOP frontrunner Donald Trump says that in the past five years he’s given $102 million to charities, but an analysis by The Washington Post is challenging that claim.
After reviewing nearly 100 pages that the Trump campaign gave The Post, reporters didn’t find any cash donations from the billionaire. The Post’s analysis found that many of the donations included free rounds of golf at his courses given away through charity auctions.
“The largest items on the list were not cash gifts but land-conservation agreements to forgo development rights on property Trump owns,” The Post reports.
In addition, many of the gifts on the list came from the charity that bears his name, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which didn’t receive a personal check from Trump from 2009 through 2014, according to the most recent public tax filings. Its work is largely funded by others, although Trump decides where the gifts go.
Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization Allen Weisselberg acknowledged that the donations didn’t include cash from Trump himself, but insisted the list wasn’t complete.
“We want to keep them quiet,” Weisselberg stated. “He doesn’t want other charities to see it. Then it becomes like a feeding frenzy.”
The Post’s full analysis can be read here.