Washington Post Fact-Checked Trump’s Flood “Donations.” The Verdict Is In…
The media has been abuzz with claims and counter-claims regarding Trump’s donations for flood relief in Louisiana. The Washington Post did a detailed investigation into the matter, and lo and behold! None of Trump’s supposed donations can be confirmed.
Here are the details:
Donald Trump claimed to have donated $100,000 to a church run by religious extremist Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council – a known hate group. Perkins’ group has now announced they have not received any money. “I’ve been told the church should [receive] it on Friday” said Perkins in an email. It is unclear whether or not this money is coming from Trump or from his charity foundation, the vast majority of whose funds come from other donors and is under investigation for fraud. The Trump campaign has not responded.
Trump has alleged that he donated an eighteen-wheeler full of supplies to the flood-stricken town of St. Amant, but nobody can find any confirmation that the trailer actually came from the Trump camp. “I was where Trump was the whole time, and he didn’t say one way or the other,” said Pastor Mark Stermer “I was never told he donated [the truck]. I was just told that, ‘Hey, this truck was the truck that was coming with Trump.’ So I never heard it [as] ‘donated.” A spokesperson for Ascension Parish said “We don’t have any information about a donation truck that came from [Trump] directly.” The Trump campaign declined to comment.
Finally, there is no record of Trump actually making a donation to the charity that the Governor of Louisiana asked he donate to in lieu of a photo-op visit, the Louisiana Flood Relief Fund. The foundation has declined to comment, the governor’s office has no record, and the Trump campaign declined to comment.
Trump already has a lengthy history of making promises to donate to charities and then either pocketing the donation money or never following through on his promises at all. It should come as no surprise that the mendacious mogul has been lying about his efforts to help the people of Louisiana while exploiting their pain for his own political gain.
