Donald Trump shuts down his fake charity as investigators close in
During the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s charitable “Donald J. Trump Foundation” was gradually exposed by the media as having been a fake charity that hasn’t been functional since around 2009, and had dissolved into little more than an illegal personal piggybank for Trump to pilfer from. The Attorney General of New York launched a far reaching investigation into the fake charity. That story disappeared from the headlines, but the investigation has continued – and now Trump is getting nervous.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has announced that it’s shutting down entirely, according to an ABC News report (link). As a practical matter, this doesn’t change much. The foundation already barely existed, and the New York AG had ordered it to freeze all operations last year. But the timing of this move, which is essentially a formality, seems to suggest that Trump believes the State of New York is about to get to the bottom of his years-long charity scam.
There is only one reason for Donald Trump to suddenly want to officially shut down a fake charity that had already been unofficially shut down a long time ago: he wants to be able to say that the “Donald J. Trump Foundation” doesn’t even exist when investigators announce they’re moving forward with legal action against him over the foundation.
In other words, keep an eye on this storyline. Now that it’s being officially shut down, the mainstream media will pay no further attention to the Donald Trump Foundation until the day investigators drop the hammer. The timing suggests that the day in question is coming fairly soon.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report