Trump Foundation donated to charities that booked galas at Mar-a-Lago

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Palm Beach Post

Trump Foundation donated to charities that booked galas at Mar-a-Lago

NATION-WORLD By Christine Stapleton - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Posted: 1:00 p.m. Friday, July 06, 2018

Nearly all of the $706,000 in donations made by the Donald J. Trump Foundation in Palm Beach County since 2008 went to charities that hosted lavish fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago -- the president's highest-profile business in the county.

While the timing and frequency of the donations suggest charities that fete at Mar-a-Lago -- especially those that return after fundraising at other venues -- are rewarded for their loyalty, several local charities said the donations were not a quid pro quo or a reward for doing business with Trump.
....

Other factors, including availability and preference for Mar-a-Lago's setting, are indisputable elements. Nonetheless, a Palm Beach Post review of the Trump Foundation's tax records found a pattern -- donations, typically $25,000 -- to eight charities after they relocated their events to the Trump family's private Palm Beach club. That list included the event widely considered the grandest gala of the island's social season, the Red Cross ball.

The Red Cross received a $21,000 donation in 2015 -- the year it decided to move its tiara-studded event from The Breakers back to Mar-a-Lago. It is the only donation the foundation made to the local chapter of the Red Cross between 2008 and 2016 -- when the foundation announced it would dissolve. The local chapter of the Red Cross declined to comment.
....

Moving to Mar-a-Lago: Who got how much and when
A sampling of the charities that received a donation at the time they moved their fundraisers to Mar-a-Lago.

-- The International Red Cross received a $21,000 donation in 2015, the year it decided to move its event from The Breakers back to Mar-a-Lago.
-- The Salvation Army received a $25,000 in 2015, the year after it moved its event to Mar-a-Lago from the Breakers.
-- The MorseLife Foundation moved its dinner dance to Mar-a-Lago in 2011 and the next year the Trump Foundation made a $25,000 donation.
-- The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society moved its event to Mar-a-Lago in 2010. In April 2011, Trump called into Rush Limbaugh's radio show during Limbaugh's annual Leukemia/Lymphoma Cure-A-Thon and pledged to give $100,000. The foundation then made a $101,500 donation.
-- The Dana Farber Cancer Institute began hosting its fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago in 2011. A year before, the Trump Foundation donated $100,000 to the institute's headquarters and the foundation followed with a $25,000 gift in 2014 and another $22,500 in 2015.
-- The Palm Beach Zoo -- a regular at the Breakers -- received a $25,000 donation from the Trump Foundation in 2013, which was the year it moved to Mar-a-Lago.

Read more: https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/national-govt--politics/trump-foundation-donated-charities-that-booked-galas-mar-lago/mfh5YFm3bK8iUOVQ8UnXKN/

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted:

https://twitter.com/fahrenthold

Trump Foundation donated to charities that booked galas at Mar-a-Lago

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

1. #TRumpCorruption #resist #indivisible 🌊🌊🌊 #FlipItBlue #BlueWave2018 #VoteThemOUT

[Freethinker65]

2. Interesting way to change non-profit money into for-profit money.

Kind of like how tax payers pay Trump for staying at his own properties.

[IronLionZion]

3. Everything these people do sounds like a scam

Pay for play. probably some money laundering involved.

[sandensea]

4. Cheeto should have been a tennis champ by now.

'Cause everything's a racket to him.

[FBaggins]

5. I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing

Say you have a charity that is hosting an event at your facility and asks you for a significant discount... wouldn't it be smarter to write them a check for the amount of the discount and then have them use it to pay full price for the services? I think that allows you to write off the full amount of the donation but still make a profit from the event

[mr_lebowski]

9. It IS a bad thing, it's a form of tax evasion, basically ...

Donating some money back 1 yr later, as appears to be their 'way of doing it', is likely done so the scam doesn't look as obvious.

I'd guess these orgs paid full fees at the time so Trump collected the full profit, but probably told them a donation would come their way in a year, as a means to get them to come to M.A.L. in the first place. Then he writes off the donation by the foundation.

So in net he'd pay taxes on the profit (say the profit = the donation) in the first year, but then in the second year he takes a write-off for the donation, essentially that write-off cancels out the tax paid on the profit, so the profit becomes 'pure profit'.

At least I'm guessing that's roughly the way this scam works.

[duforsure]

6. Just another scam from trump

Giving to those he in return gets it back , then deducts it on his tax returns.

[erronis]

7. Most of this list of charities have outgrown their charitable basis

"Non-profit" is now mainly a way to filter money (launder?) and pay huge salaries/benefits to the suits. And abuse the real workers by paying them lower-than-average wages.

All of the hospitals in my state re "non-profit". But the CEOs make multi-millions and the administrative overhead is enormous. The nurses and other medical professionals are held as wage slaves.

[LiberalArkie]

8. I think that not only is Trump laundering money but so are those charities.

[Mc Mike]

10. Hmmm. THAT -- seems illegal.

[HopeAgain]

11. That's a form of money laundering...