Donald Trump has reportedly used money from his charitable foundation to help himself, as detailed in an in-depth report from The Washington Post published Tuesday. The investigation, by Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold, revealed the Republican presidential candidate has spent an estimated $258,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation — a "charity funded almost entirely by other people's money" — to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses, including one of his golf courses in New York and his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Post said Trump's use of charity money may be in violation of a law that specifically prohibits "nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses." Jeffrey Tenenbaum, who advises charities at the Washington, D.C., law firm, Venable, called Trump's reported actions particularly "brazen" and "really shocking." "If he's using other people's money — run through his foundation — to satisfy his personal obligations, then that's about as blatant an example of self-dealing [as] I've seen in a while," Tenenbaum said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
-
Eighty years after Hiroshima: how close is nuclear conflict?Today's Big Question Eight decades on from the first atomic bomb 'we have blundered into a new age of nuclear perils'
-
Valle dell'Erica Thalasso & Spa: a tranquil haven in SardiniaThe Week Recommends This family-friendly resort is steps from the sea and boasts a well-equipped kids' club
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress codespeed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirementspeed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
