And now we have Donald Trump, using vets to distract from his absence onstage at the Fox News debate, and trying to make himself, a man who “received draft deferments through much of the Vietnam War” but once said he “always felt that I was in the military” because he attended a military prep school, which, the New York Times reports, was “where his parents had sent him to correct poor behavior”. Trump’s campaign has not specified which veterans groups he will be donating to, though he said any proceeds will be spread around to a number of different organizations.
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But as the clock ticked closer to the start of Trump’s veteran event, neither Trump nor his dedicated donation website had specified where exactly any funds raised would go or how they would be used. Why are donations going to the Donald J. Trump Foundation? Veteran charity scams are one of the long-embedded scourges of the philanthropic world, and if you have not been following our years of coverage into the scams, we urge you to take a gander.
Moreover, Trump’s record on veteran support across the board is mixed, and his rally has brought past examples of his missteps and shortcomings to the forefront. He tweeted a link to a fund-raising page on Thursday afternoon.
CORNISH: Tim, you know, as I listen to candidates stump speeches, I do hear them talk about veterans broadly. They help veterans applying to college.
Above the donation field, the website reads, “I WANT TO SUPPORT VETERANS WITH THE FOLLOWING AMOUNT”.
The candidate skipping the G.O.P. debate isn’t appreciated by some veterans organizations.
Homepage of DonaldTrumpForVets.com. The donations immediately go to Trump’s personal foundation.
“The Donald J Trump Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization”, the disclosure reads.
As Emily Canal of Forbes reported in October: “The Donald J. Trump Foundation has donated $5.5 million to 298 charities between 2009 and 2013 (the most recent year available), according to the non-profit’s 990 tax forms from those years”.
Presumably, if Trump declines their invitations, the campaigns would not donate the money.
Paul Rieckhoff, founder and C.E.O. of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, is disappointed that the campaign has resorted to “political stunts” centered around veterans. “We hope all the candidates can focus on veterans policy and veterans issues and not just use veterans as a political prop”.
“Let me put this in language Donald Trump understands”, Iraq War veteran and chairman of the progressive veterans group VoteVets.org Jon Soltz told MSNBC in a statement.
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“He’s shooting off his mouth about giving to a veterans charity and he hasn’t named anybody”, Folsom said.
