The Washington Post ran a big piece exposing Donald Trump’s shady “charity” foundation on Tuesday, and the Trump campaign is not happy about it.
In fact, the campaign issued an angry statement denouncing the report — and yet it conspicuously failed to mention any specific fact that the report got wrong.
“In typical Washington Post fashion, they’ve gotten their facts wrong,” said campaign spokesman Stephen Miller. “It is the Clinton Foundation that is set up to make sure the Clintons personally enrich themselves by selling access and trading political favors. The Trump Foundation has no paid board, no management fees, no rent or overhead, and no family members on its payroll.”
The Post’s report from Tuesday outlined how Donald Trump twice used his foundation to pay out settlements that resulted from lawsuits leveled against his private businesses. This is particularly noteworthy because Trump himself hasn’t given any money to the foundation since 2008, which means any payments the foundation makes are done through other people’s money.
“There was not, and could not be, any intent or motive for the Trump Foundation to make improper payments,” Miller insisted in the Trump campaign’s statement. “All contributions are reported to the IRS, and all Foundation donations are publicly disclosed.”
While it’s true that the foundation itself has no motive to pay off lawsuits with other people’s money, Trump himself has every reason to do so simply because he is notoriously cheap.
It will be interesting to see if the campaign tries to issue a more detailed rebuttal of the Post’s report or if it thinks simple hand-waving will suffice.
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