Tuesday’s press conference-during which Trump stood at his usual Trump podium, with a handful of veterans standing behind him-appeared to be an attempt by his campaign to put these questions to bed once and for all.
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Trump said on Tuesday that he had raised $5.6 million, of which every penny had been donated to veteran charities, and that he expected additional donations to tip the figure over the $6 million mark.
“When you send checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to people and to companies and to groups that you’ve never heard of, charitable organizations, you have to vet it”, Trump said.
Trump said that when he sends money to veterans the press, rather than praise him, just wants to know, “Who got it?” Back in January, he claimed repeatedly to have raised more than $6 million, which led to press reports about where the money was heading.
Trump told reporters at a testy news conference in NY that the fundraiser, held at the same time as a Fox News GOP debate he was boycotting, raised $5.6 million.
But his campaign refused for months to disclose which charities received the money.
According to him, the “drive-by media” are using the “age-old political handbook ” to blast Trump and he is simply “commanding access” which has somehow shown the media up.
For 40 minutes on Tuesday, Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, assailed reporters with a level of venom rarely seen at all, let alone in public, from the standard-bearer of a major USA political party.
“I’m going to continue to attack the press”, Mr Trump said.
He declined to discuss details about the relationship between the organization and ACS, including what percentage of fundraising goes to the Foundation for American Veterans. “When I served in Afghanistan I served with women, I served with Muslims, and I served with Latinos”, O’Brien said, pointing out that they were all groups that Trump had either “maligned” or “threatened”. And instead of being like, ‘Thank you very much, Mr. Trump, ‘ or ‘Trump did a good job, ‘ everyone’s saying: ‘Who got (the money)? The billionaire mogul interrupted his recitation of the list of groups receiving portions of the money to complain about the way reporters had called up charities to try to verify his contributions.
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Tuesday morning fired off a statement tweaking Trump over his accounting of the donations amid a multi-pronged push to counter Trump’s news conference. The foundation had presented Trump with an award at its 2015 gala held at a ritzy NY hotel. Trump announced last week he had donated $1 million of his own money. That check, originally pledged by Trump in connection with a nationally televised telethon shortly before the Iowa caucuses in January, did not materialize until after a reporter for The Washington Post inquired about whether Trump had followed through on his commitment. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. The judge just ordered documents released in a Trump University lawsuit where recruiters knew numerous potential customers may not have the funds to cover the school’s tuition fees. He said he needed four months to scrutinize the recipients.
