In two tweets Trump wrote three sentences and said four lies. It may be some kind of record.
As the grand finale to his post-Christmas meltdown, Trump decided to turn his attention away from whining about Obama to lying about his charitable giving. At issue was the Trump Foundation - a name that is misleading because just about the only person who never donates money to the foundation was Trump himself.
I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, ALL of which is given to charity, and media won't report!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016
The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016
Those two tweets contain almost no factual information. The lies are astonishing. Reporter Matt Pearce identified (at least) four of them in a rundown:
1. Not all the Trump foundation money went to charity: https://t.co/zw5CauNtqk
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) December 27, 2016
2. Trump may have only made a single $10,000 donation between 2008-2015: https://t.co/A9OWJ0LGmd
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) December 27, 2016
3. Not all the foundation money went to charity (I guess that's the same lie, but he said it twice)
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) December 27, 2016
And finally…
4. @Fahrenthold reported on Trump's charitable giving for months, which Trump knows, because he called him a "nasty guy"
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) December 27, 2016
What’s most galling here, as Matt Pearce notes, is that Trump isn’t just fudging the truth or passing along misinformation. He is knowingly lying. He is certainly aware of the fact that David Fahrenthold has been doggedly investigating his charitable giving since the election began for example. His relentless reporting has found that Trump has given almost no money to charity in the past decade. His fact-finding has caught Trump’s ire because it exposes the one thing Trump desperately hopes people don’t find out: He’s a complete fraud.
For instance, Farenthold’s investigations led to blistering reporting like this. Trump was once honored for “donating” to the Palm Beach Police Foundation. It turned out he hadn’t given a cent of his own money, instead soliciting money from other charities which he then slapped his name on and presented as his own.
The effect was a complete fraud - and possibly one meant to further enrich Trump:
On the night that he won the Palm Tree Award for his philanthropy, Trump may have actually made money. The gala was held at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, and the police foundation paid to rent the room.
Farenthold also probably inadvertently prompted this post-Christmas meltdown. Earlier in the night, he went on Anderson Cooper to detail precisely how Trump’s foundation is a scam. It was brutal.
.@Fahrenthold: Trump Foundation appears to have violated the ‘self-dealing’ rule https://t.co/8CqDXUp4eb
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) December 27, 2016
We are dealing with a president that can piss on the heads of Americans and tell them it’s raining. Then charge a premium for Trump brand umbrellas.
Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images
