The Trump inaugural committee has provided no details about what it plans to donate.
If "you have promised to take steps that would at least lessen the appearance of impropriety, and then you don't take those steps, it would affect my evaluation of him," said Erik Jensen, a professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland who has studied conflict-of-interest rules. Trump's charitable promises have sparked controversy in the past. Washington Post reports last year highlighted past Trump promises of charity that months later had not come to fruition.
In January 2016, for instance, Trump said he had donated $1 million of his own money - and raised an additional $5 million from others - for veterans' charities. But Trump did not make good on his $1 million promise until four months later, under pressure from the media. Before he actually paid, Trump's campaign manager made a false claim that the money had already been spent.ĭuring last year's presidential campaign, The Post also showed that Trump had spent years promising large donations to charity - building a public reputation as a man whose generosity was as impressive as his wealth.īut The Post found little evidence to show Trump's actual generosity matched his boasting. The Post called 450 charities that seemed close to the candidate - nonprofit groups that he had praised on Twitter or that had paid him to rent banquet space. It asked whether each had received a gift from Trump's own pocket. That search turned up one donation from Trump himself between 20 - a gift of less than $10,000 to the Police Athletic League in New York City. Trump, who boasted frequently as a candidate about his wealth, promised early in the campaign not to take his presidential pay.
"I'm accepting no salary," he told a crowd in New Hampshire in September 2015. "That's not a big deal for me."īut the Constitution requires the president to be compensated. So last month, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told PolitiFact that Trump would indeed take the money - but then give it back, or give it away. "He is required to get a paycheck but will be giving it back to treasury or donating," Sanders told the fact-checking site. Trump's $400,000 annual salary works out to about $33,333 per month before taxes. On Monday, Spicer offered reporters a new explanation for what Trump intends to do with the money. "The president's intention right now is to donate his salary at the end of the year," Spicer said, in response to a question from One America News Network reporter Trey Yingst. The way that we can avoid scrutiny is to let the press corps determine where it should go." "And he has kindly asked that you all help determine where that goes. The White House press office did not respond to questions from The Post about why Trump is waiting until year's end to donate the money when charities might prefer to have the funds now. But previous practice dictated that a civil servant sign them instead.The White House has also not offered any more details about how the news media might make its suggestions. The Post reported, citing unnamed administration officials, that Trump had privately suggested to Mnuchin he wanted to formally sign the checks. It is unclear from the emails the Treasury Department provided to ABC News who exactly thought of including the president's name in the first place. Direct deposit payments started hitting bank accounts the next day - April 15 - and the checks with Trump's name followed later in the month. The IRS quickly denied there would be any delay. Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted the administration, accusing Trump of hurting Americans in need and demanding more information. That story ricocheted around the Treasury Department, with Mnuchin quickly emailing it to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Amid the back-and-forth, late on April 14, the Post reported that the decision to include Trump's name would likely delay the checks going out the paper cited unnamed officials.
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