Forbes Discloses How Eric and Donnie Sr. Diverted Huge Sums Meant for Charity to Trump Enterprises

Ripping Off Charities, Just Business as Usual for the Trumpies

Eric Trump has a foundation that has substantially benefited St. Jude’s Hospital.  There is no doubt about this and the sums have been admirable.  But like everything else the Trumps touch, even the good stuff, they leave a trail of greed and slime. Forbes magazine has the details.

The affair is complicated, but here is a summary of what they did.  Eric Trump started out by getting to use a Trump golf course for a fund raiser with no charges.  But then Donnie heard about it and things changed.

But in 2011, things took a turn. Costs for Eric Trump's tournament jumped from $46,000 to $142,000, according to the foundation's IRS filings. Why would the price of the tournament suddenly triple in one year? "In the early years, they weren't being billed [for the club]--the bills would just disappear," says Ian Gillule, who served as membership and marketing director at Trump National Westchester during two stints from 2006 to 2015 and witnessed how Donald Trump reacted to the tournament's economics. "Mr. Trump had a cow. He flipped. He was like, 'We're donating all of this stuff, and there's no paper trail? No credit?' And he went nuts. He said, 'I don't care if it's my son or not--everybody gets billed.' "

A second thing that happened is that one Trump foundation donates some money to other Trump foundation.  Okay nothing wrong with that.  But then the foundation turns around and uses it to pay for services at other Trump properties. 

After it was successful the big boys took over from Eric

In 2010, the year the economics of the tournament suddenly pivoted, four of the seven original board members, who were personal friends of Eric, left. Those 4 were eventually replaced by 14 new board members, the majority of whom owed all or much of their livelihoods to the Trump Organization. Six of them were effectively full-time employees, including Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and executive vice president Dan Scavino Jr., who both serve in political roles for President Trump. Another owns a company that billed the Trump campaign $16 million. Add in Eric himself, as well as his wife, Lara, and 9 of the 17 Eric Trump Foundation board members had a vested interest in the moneymaking side of the Trump empire. The foundation had become a de facto subsidiary of the Trump Organization.

So how does Eric respond to this analysis.  Well he calls is critics “sub-human”.  

“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” Trump said. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. I mean, morality’s just gone. Morals have flown at the window. We deserve so much better than this as a country.”

We will leave it for readers to find the irony here.