In something which should come as zero shock to anyone paying attention, Donald Trump has agreed to wind up the Trump Foundation and will be dispersing its meagre funds to actual charitable organisations.
This followed New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood described “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and wilful self-dealing, and much more.”
Underwood made the announcement on Tuesday, also ruling that Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump would be banned from sitting on the board of any other non-profit, while also indicating that she would be pursuing further investigations against the four Trumples.
However, it’s rude to suggest that the foundation didn’t do anything.
For a start, in 2007 it spent $20,000 on a six foot tall painting of future American president Donald Trump, which the Washington Post reported was then on display at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in New York State. Charity!
There’s also allegations that the charity was used to pay legal settlements and make illegal campaign donations, although it did make a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989 to repair a fountain… which was, um, outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel. But as the old saying goes, charity begins at the forecourt of the hotel you own.
He also donated a whopping $7 to the Boy Scouts of America, an amount which just so happens to be the same amount it costs to register an eleven year old as a scout – like, say, Barron Trump. Quick point: paying to enrol in the Scouts is not technically a donation.
And sure, it’s pretty embarrassing that the charity of a sitting president is being shut down for alleged fraudulent activity. On the plus side, it’s probably going to be the least of Don’s legal worries.