 |
| Donald Trump will try to close the loop on the millions he raised for veterans charities, in a press conference Tuesday in the lobby of his Trump Tower skyscraper in New York City |
'I have raised/given a tremendous amount of money to our great VETERANS, and have got nothing but bad publicity for doing so. Watch!' the Republican presidential candidate tweeted as the day began.
He promised last week during a press conference in North Dakota – as senior aides looked on in apparent bewilderment – that he would hold a Trump Tower event to explain where the money went.
Anticipation of that media circus was high on Tuesday as reporters, photographers and cameramen staked out space in the lobby of Trump's eponymous marble midtown-Manhattan skyscraper.
Journalists have tracked most of the pledged money, and the Trump campaign distributed a list on March 3 that accounted for $3 million in payouts. But The Washington Post got aggressive last week and reported that the real estate tycoon had fallen short on his promises.
Trump held a high-energy rally in Des Moines on January 28 rather than participate in the final debate before the Iowa Caucuses. He exclaimed that night: 'We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million.'
That amount, he said, included $1 million of his own money – a check he wrote just last week to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a group that gave Trump an award in 2015.
A Trump aide told DailyMail.com over the weekend that the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee 'might actually roll out money from a few new donors.'
Trump himself said Monday during a Veterans Day speech at the annual Rolling Thunder rally in Washington that he had 'raised almost $6 million for the vets because I didn't do a television show,' lowering expectations.
Even an amount around $5.5 million, though, would put Trump $5.5 million ahead of every other presidential candidate in the 2016 cycle and give him a moral victory.
'All of the groups that have gotten the money will be announced on Tuesday,' Trump said.
The Washington Post named a few of those organizations on Monday, including Achilles International, which helps wounded veterans train for athletic contests; Racing for Heroes, a car racing organization for vets with post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries; The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which pays for treatment and physical rehab of wounded warriors; The Boston Wounded Vet Run, which benefits wounded veterans; and The Bob Woodruff Foundation, founded by a, ABC News anchorman who suffered a traumatic brain injury while reporting from Iraq.
The Post claimed it could track only $4.1 million in all.
Last week Trump vented on Twitter that '[a]mazingly, with all of the money I have raised for the vets, I have got nothing but bad publicity from the dishonest and disgusting media.'
'While under no obligation to do so, I have raised between 5 & 6 million dollars, including 1million dollars from me, for our VETERANS. Nice!' he wrote in another tweet.
Democrats are not content to let Trump have an uncontested layup on Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton's campaign will host a conference call for reporters a few hours after the Trump presser, with a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral and U.S. Air Force brigadier general.
'Trump has misled about donating money to veterans, insulted prisoners of war, and his advisers have said he was open to privatizing the VA,' the Clinton camp said Tuesday morning.
And a group of veterans recruited by the far left group Americans United for Change will picket Trump Tower as the multibillionaire wraps up his press conference.
That organization said in a statement Monday that Trump has been 'lying about the $6 million he supposedly raised for veterans’ charitable organizations' and 'has been evasive and dishonest about this money.'
dailymail
0 Comments