Ben Davis
News Examiner
Although Donald Trump has described himself as an “ardent philanthropist,” he has only donated $3.7 million to his own foundation. In comparison, a wrestling company has given Trump’s foundation $5 million. He ranks among the least charitable billionaires in the world.
During the Comedy Central roast of Donald Trump, the presidential aspirant used his rebuttal time to remind the audience–and a dais of tormentors–that he had “seven billion f...ing dollars in the bank.” He delivered this rebuke with the kind of pure joy seen when a boy discovers Santa has brought him a puppy for Christmas.
More than his towering ego, vituperative tongue, or peculiar hairstyle, money has defined Trump during the 30-plus years he has spent in the public eye. He frequently brags of his billions, and even sued a journalist who had the nerve to question whether those 10-figure pronouncements were severely inflated.
Now that Trump is again threatening to run for president–and has, for the first time, gained some political traction thanks to his embrace of the “birther” movement–The Smoking Gun has examined how the 64-year-old developer has spent some of that massive fortune. Specifically, Trump’s philanthropy over the past 20 years, which has been channeled through the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
A TSG review of the group’s Internal Revenue Service returns dating back to 1990 reveals that Trump, the foundation’s president, may be the least charitable billionaire in the United States.
How miserly is The Donald?
From 1990 through 2009, Trump has personally donated a total of just $3.7 million to his foundation, which was incorporated in 1987. In fact, the billionaire is not even the largest contributor to his own charitable organization.
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During the past two decades, the Trump foundation has made charitable contributions totaling a paltry $6.7 million.
Both the amount of money Trump has donated to his own foundation as well as the aggregate contributions made by the not-for-profit group are pitiful when compared to the philanthropy of other high-profile tycoons like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg, David Geffen, or S.I. Newhouse.
For example, in 2008 alone, Bloomberg’s charitable contributions totaled $235 million. In 2009, Ellison gave his medical foundation stock worth $73.2 million, according to IRS records. Newhouse’s foundation reported making donations totaling $11.8 million on its 2009 IRS return. And a tax return filed last year revealed that the late entertainer Johnny Carson even left his charitable foundation $156 million.
Trump’s miniscule donations have also been dwarfed by the charitable contributions of Leona Helmsley, whom Trump took great pleasure in mercilessly skewering. Helmsley, who died in 2007, left billions to her charitable trust, which last month alone made donations totaling $12.93 million (or nearly twice what Trump’s foundation has donated in the past 20 years).
In the aftermath of national tragedies like September 11 and Hurricane Katrina–when public figures worth a fraction of Trump were donating seven figures to relief organizations–the billionaire apparently misplaced his checkbook somewhere in his triplex atop Trump Tower.
Helmsley, by comparison, gave $5 million to the American Red Cross when New Orleans was submerged, and, post-9/11, she gave $5 million to the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.
In 2006, Trump’s foundation did give $1000 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund, a controversial Scientology program (co-founded by Tom Cruise) that promoted a “purification rundown” for firemen and others who inhaled toxins while working near the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center.
More here:
http://newsexaminer.net/politics/donald-trump-the-least-charitable-billionaire/
