Charitable and Philanthropic Abuse
Misuse of charitable organizations and philanthropic fraud.
19 entries
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceTargeting Nonprofit Organizations: Executive Actions to Revoke Tax-Exempt Status of Universities and Advocacy Groups Critical of Administration Policies2025–2026
Beginning in early 2025, the Trump administration took a series of actions targeting the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations that had been critical of or had come into conflict with administration policies. These actions raised First Amendment concerns and represented an expansion of executive power into an area where federal…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceConditioning Disaster Relief on Political Compliance: Trump Threatened to Withhold Federal Wildfire Aid from California Over Water Policy and Voter ID Demands2025
In January 2025, devastating wildfires swept through the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of structures and displacing tens of thousands of residents. As the fires raged, President Donald Trump publicly threatened to withhold federal disaster relief from California unless Governor Gavin Newsom complied with demands unrelated to…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceMonetizing the Presidency: The Save America PAC Slush Fund, Legal Bill Payments, and the Merchandising of Political Office2020–2024
Following his 2020 election loss, Donald Trump created a political fundraising apparatus that raised hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters under the banner of fighting election fraud, then spent the bulk of those funds on legal bills, personal expenses, and political activities unrelated to the stated fundraising purpose. The…
Tier 1, Adjudicated and Legally ResolvedPresidential Inaugural Committee: $750,000 Settlement for Misuse of Nonprofit Funds and Hotel Overpayments2017–2022
The 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, organized as a nonprofit 501(c)(4), raised a record $107 million in donations for events surrounding Donald Trump's January 20, 2017 inauguration. The DC Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit on January 22, 2020, alleging that the committee misused nonprofit funds in violation of DC nonprofit…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismInflated Generosity Claims: Presidential Salary Donations Offset by Agency Cuts, Unsubstantiated Charitable Giving, and Credit for Others' Philanthropy2016–2026
Donald Trump has a documented history of publicly claiming charitable generosity that is not supported by the available evidence, including inflated claims about personal donations, publicized presidential salary donations to agencies whose budgets he simultaneously proposed cutting, and a broader pattern of claiming credit for…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceVeterans Fundraiser: $6 Million Raised at Iowa Rally with Months-Long Delay in Distribution2016
On January 28, 2016, Donald Trump skipped a Fox News Republican primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, and instead held a competing televised fundraiser billed as a benefit for veterans' organizations. Trump announced that the event had raised $6 million for veterans' groups, including a $1 million personal pledge from Trump himself.
Tier 5, Interpretive and Normative AssessmentVeterans Fundraiser as Debate Alternative: Using a Charitable Event for Political Advantage2016
On January 28, 2016, Donald Trump boycotted the Fox News Republican presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, citing what he called biased treatment by debate moderator Megyn Kelly. As an alternative, Trump organized a fundraiser for veterans' organizations at Drake University, held simultaneously with the debate at a venue…
Tier 1, Adjudicated and Legally ResolvedThe Trump Foundation's Final Accounting: Court-Supervised Dissolution, $2 Million in Restitution, and a Complete Record of Self-Dealing2016–2019
On November 7, 2019, New York Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla issued the final judgment in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump. The ruling ordered Trump to pay $2 million in restitution and documented a…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismCharity Golf Tournaments: Trump's Pattern of Hosting Charitable Events at His Courses While Pocketing Fees and Rigging Prize Payouts2010–2019
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, whose investigation into Trump's charitable claims won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, documented a pattern in which Donald Trump used charity golf tournaments held at his courses to generate publicity for his generosity while the actual charitable contributions were minimal,…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidenceFake Charitable Pledges: Pattern of Unfulfilled Donations and the 2016 Veterans Fundraiser2009–2017
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold conducted a systematic investigation into Donald Trump's charitable pledges between 2015 and 2016, contacting more than 400 major charities to verify whether Trump had followed through on public promises of personal donations. The investigation found that between 2008 and May 2016, only one…
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary EvidencePhantom Charitable Donations: The Washington Post Investigation into Trump's Unfulfilled Pledges to Give to Charity2008–2019
In 2016, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold conducted a systematic investigation into Donald Trump's history of charitable giving. The investigation, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, found a pattern of Trump publicly claiming to donate to charities but not following through, and of the Trump Foundation…
Tier 1, Adjudicated and Legally ResolvedSelf-Dealing Purchases: Charity Funds Used to Buy Personal Items Including Portraits and a Tim Tebow Helmet2007–2019
As part of the broader dissolution case against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the New York Attorney General documented multiple instances in which Trump used charitable funds to purchase personal items that were displayed at his for-profit properties or retained for his personal use.
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismEric Trump Foundation and St. Jude: Charity Golf Fundraiser Revenue Redirected Through Trump Organization Properties2007–2017
Beginning in 2007, Eric Trump hosted an annual Golf Invitational fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Eric Trump publicly promoted the event by emphasizing that the Trump Organization donated the use of the golf course at no cost, allowing…
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismProfiting from Charity at Mar-a-Lago: How Trump Charged Nonprofits Full Venue Rates While Claiming Credit for Their Philanthropic Work2006–2017
For more than a decade, Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, served as a venue for charity galas hosted by prominent nonprofit organizations, including local chapters of the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Palm Beach Zoo, the…
Tier 5, Interpretive and Normative AssessmentCharity as a Stage: Trump Used Others' Philanthropic Events for Self-Promotion and Steered Charity Donations to Mar-a-Lago2005–2017
Over more than a decade, Donald Trump exhibited a documented pattern of inserting himself into other organizations' charitable activities for personal publicity, while simultaneously using his private club, Mar-a-Lago, as a venue that generated revenue from charities and facilitated self-dealing through the Trump Foundation.
Tier 3, Documented Through Primary Evidence9/11 False Claims: Fabricating a Role at Ground Zero, Promoting a Debunked Conspiracy Theory, and Collecting a Recovery Grant Meant for Small Businesses2001–2019
Over nearly two decades, Donald Trump made a series of false or unsubstantiated claims about his actions and experiences related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including claims that he helped at Ground Zero, that he witnessed large-scale celebrations by Muslims in New Jersey, and that he lost "hundreds of friends" in the…
Tier 5, Interpretive and Normative AssessmentThe Giving Pledge Gap: Trump's Pattern of Promised Donations and Undelivered Charitable Commitments2001–2021
Despite publicly claiming a net worth of $10 billion or more throughout his presidential campaigns and presidency, Donald Trump never signed the Giving Pledge, the public commitment created in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in which billionaires promise to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. More significantly,…
Tier 1, Adjudicated and Legally ResolvedTrump Foundation: Court-Ordered Dissolution for Illegal Self-Dealing and Campaign Finance Violations1988–2019
The Donald J. Trump Foundation, a tax-exempt private foundation incorporated in 1988, was dissolved by court order in December 2018 after the New York Attorney General's office established a pattern of illegal conduct spanning more than a decade.
Tier 4, Credibly Reported Through Investigative JournalismTrump's Personal Charitable Giving Record: Decades of Inflated Claims, Foundation Funded by Others, and No Personal Donations After 20081988–2018
Over a period of decades, Donald Trump cultivated a public image as a generous philanthropist. Investigative reporting, primarily by David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, revealed that Trump's personal charitable giving was far more limited than claimed, and that the Donald J. Trump Foundation was funded primarily by other people's…