RealClearPolitics: Trump used foundation $ to curry political favor

Posted by | October 4, 2016 09:00 | Filed under: News Behaving Badly Politics

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This could be a problem for the former game show host:

As Donald Trump began making noise about a possible bid for president in 2011, South Carolina conservative activist Oran Smith caught the celebrity businessman’s eye as a particularly vocal and potentially influential critic.

“Trump would get thumped here,” Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a social conservative public policy group, told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “He is a celebrity, but an apprentice at politics.”

Smith’s comments appeared in a March 2011 CBN story alongside feedback from other key national evangelical leaders such as Ralph Reed and Tony Perkins. Shortly after the story ran, Trump called Smith and invited him to meet at Trump Tower in New York, Smith told RealClearPolitics, “to see if he could convince me those things weren’t true.”

“It probably had something to do with, I was in an early primary state,” Smith said. Trump was “laying the foundation for a … campaign,” Smith thought at the time, although “it was difficult trying to tell if he was serious about running for president or not.”

During their meeting in Trump’s office, they discussed Christian faith and religious liberty. Smith was struck by “a different Donald Trump than I expected.” On his way out the door, Smith asked that Trump consider donating to the Palmetto Family Council.

“He was never heavy-handed about any quid pro quo,” Smith said.

But Trump delivered.

“It was a quiet donation that came with a simple cover letter,” Smith said. It read: “Great meeting with you and your wife in my office,” dated May 6, 2011. Enclosed was a check for $10,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

That check is one of at least several donations to suggest Trump used his private foundation, funded by outside donors, to launch and fuel his political ambitions. Such contributions, if they were made solely for Trump’s benefit, could violate federal self-dealing laws for private foundations.

And that is just the first example cited in RCP’s lengthy look at possibly illegal disbursement of Trump Foundation money to special interest groups.

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Copyright 2016 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.

15 responses to RealClearPolitics: Trump used foundation $ to curry political favor

  1. Larry Schmitt October 4th, 2016 at 09:15

    So when does he get charged with breaking the law?

  2. Buford2k11 October 4th, 2016 at 09:25

    ok then…A criminal running for POTUS, using criminal means to those ends…the gop is a monster that needs to be exterminated…

    • whatthe46 October 4th, 2016 at 09:27

      lets do this together on Nov. 8th. i’ve got your back, my son has mine, and lets have Hillary’s together!

  3. Mensa Member October 4th, 2016 at 09:56

    Remember all the times Trump accused the Clinton Foundation of being a big slush fund?

    Clearly, he was talking about the Trump Foundation.

    • Willys41 October 4th, 2016 at 12:04

      That what Karl Rove was preaching for years and years. If republicans are weak on an issue, attack the Democrats on that very issue. Attack HRC on her emails to deflect from the 22 million emails that Bush disappeared.

      • Larry Schmitt October 4th, 2016 at 12:57

        Karl Rove is still waiting for the Ohio results from 2012. He’s sure it will show Romney the winner.

        • Willys41 October 4th, 2016 at 13:47

          Rove, like most of the republican leadership, suffers from the inability to face reality. That’s why they still haven’t figured out how and why Trump got nominated.

  4. Roctuna October 4th, 2016 at 10:09

    ” IF they were made solely for Trump’s benefit,”?? Is there any doubt whatsoever?

  5. amersham1046 October 4th, 2016 at 11:35

    not so much a slush fund, more of a flush fund
    seems to be full of BS

  6. Willys41 October 4th, 2016 at 12:03

    An all new “Teflon Don.”

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