Donald J. Trump Foundation

Donald J. Trump Foundation
Formation1988; 36 years ago (1988)
FounderDonald Trump
Type501(c)3
13-3404773[1]
Legal statusUndergoing court-ordered dissolution
HeadquartersNew York City, New York
Location
  • United States
This article is part of
a series about
Donald Trump
Business and personal
45th & 47th President of the
United States
Tenure
Policies
Appointments
Presidential campaigns
Impeachments
Civil and criminal prosecutions
COVID-19 pandemic
Donald Trump's signature
Seal of the President of the United States

The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a New York-based tax-exempt private foundation formed in 1988 by Donald Trump and dissolved by court order in 2018 after various legal violations came to light.

The foundation was created to receive royalties from Trump's 1987 book Trump: The Art of the Deal as well as donations from others, for the stated purpose of distributing the funds to charitable causes. Trump's children Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. served on the board, which did not meet after 1999.[2] Trump stopped contributing to the foundation in 2008, but continued to solicit donations.[3]

The foundation's activities came under scrutiny during the 2016 presidential election campaign, initially by The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold. Law enforcement investigators subsequently discovered various ethical and legal violations, including failure to register in New York, self-dealing and illegal campaign contributions.[4][5][6] In December 2016, Trump tried to dissolve the foundation, but the New York State Attorney General's office blocked dissolution pending completion of its investigations.[7] Trump served as its president until January 2017, three days after his inauguration as U.S. president.[8][9][10]

On June 14, 2018, New York attorney general Barbara Underwood filed a civil suit against the foundation, Trump himself, and Trump's adult children—Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.—alleging "a shocking pattern of illegality" with respect to the foundation's money.[11][12][13] On December 18, 2018, Underwood announced that the foundation had agreed to shut down under court supervision and distribute its remaining assets to court-approved charities, although she did not end investigations of the foundation and its directors.[14] In November 2019, Trump admitted to using the foundation for his business and political purposes and was ordered to pay $2 million as restitution.[15][16] Additionally, Trump was required to reimburse $11,525 to the foundation, which was added to $1,797,598.30 already in the foundation's bank account. The money as well as the funds in the foundation's bank were paid to eight charities in December 2019.[17]

The winding down of the foundation and the settlement did not end investigations of the foundation and its directors nor resolve any other potential prosecutions of Trump and others arising from the dealings by or through the foundation. On February 22, 2021, the Supreme Court in Trump v. Vance rejected any further delay in the production of Trump's tax records by Trump's accountants Mazars, under an August 2019 subpoena.[18] Mazars handed over to Vance millions of pages of documents containing Trump's tax returns from January 2011 to August 2019, as well as financial statements, engagement agreements, documents relating to the preparation and review of tax returns, and work papers and communications related to the tax returns.[19]

  1. ^ "Form 990 2015". ProPublica. May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  2. ^ Hackney, Philip (November 9, 2019). "Trump's charity woes are uncommon, if not unprecedented, and could get more costly". The Conversation. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  3. ^ "Donald Trump's troubled charity foundation to shut down". BBC. December 18, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  4. ^ David A. Fahrenthold (September 1, 2016). "Trump pays IRS a penalty for his foundation violating rules with gift to aid Florida attorney general". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 10, 2016. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  5. ^ Rubin, Richard (November 22, 2016). "Donald Trump's Foundation Engaged in Self-Dealing, IRS Filing Shows". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  6. ^ David A. Fahrenthold (November 22, 2016). "Trump Foundation admits to violating ban on 'self-dealing,' new filing to IRS shows". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  7. ^ "Donald Trump is shutting down his charitable foundation". NBC News. November 20, 2017. Archived from the original on November 27, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Promised millions was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference A mixed bag was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hasn't Contributed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Hartmann, Margaret. "New York State Opens Tax Probe Into Trump Foundation". Daily Intelligencer. Archived from the original on July 19, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  12. ^ Raymond, Adam K. (June 14, 2018). "New York Sues Trump for Using His Foundation As a Slush Fund". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  13. ^ Gideon Resnick (June 14, 2018). "Trump Family Ran 'Persistently Illegal' Charity, New York A.G. Says in Blockbuster Lawsuit". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on November 15, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  14. ^ Fahrenthold, David (December 18, 2018). "Trump agrees to shut down his charity amid allegations that he used it for personal and political benefit". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  15. ^ "Judge orders Trump to pay $2 million for misusing his charitable foundation". PBS NewsHour. November 7, 2019. Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  16. ^ Ramey, Corinne (November 8, 2019). "Trump Must Pay $2 Million in Settlement of Suit Over Foundation". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  17. ^ "Donald J. Trump Pays Court-Ordered $2 Million For Illegally Using Trump Foundation Funds | New York State Attorney General". ag.ny.gov. December 10, 2019. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  18. ^ Liptak, Adam (February 22, 2021). "Supreme Court Denies Trump's Final Bid to Block Release of Financial Records". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  19. ^ Scannell, Kara; Prokupecz, Shimon; Cole, Devan (February 25, 2021). "Trump's tax returns and related records turned over to Manhattan district attorney". CNN. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.