After dropping out of the Fox News debate in January, Donald Trump held a fundraiser for veterans, claiming that he’d do more for the country if he were helping those who’d served in the armed forces than if he were sharing a stage with Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
But just a few months later, veterans charities have received only a fraction of the $6 million Trump said he’d raised, and the campaign was forced to admit on Friday that it hadn’t pulled together the $6 million it earlier claimed.
This doesn’t come as a surprise to veterans agencies, who told the Wall Street Journal in April that they’d only received about $2.4 million of the $6 million. Most of the donations arrived in $50,000 or $100,000 increments right after the Trump announcement, then trailed off in March. The Washington Post manged to account for about $3.1 million, approximately half of what Trump said he’d raised.
Trump’s campaign manager Cory Lewandowski blamed the shortfall on Trump’s rich friends, saying that while Donald had managed to make good on his pledge, others who had pledged large sums had never paid up: “There were some individuals who he’d spoken to, who were going to write large checks, [who] for whatever reason . . . didn’t do it,” Lewandowski told the Washington Post. “I can’t tell you who.” One donor Lewandowski alluded to, an Ohio “mall magnate,” told the Post he’d only pledged $50,000.
Lewandowski refused to say, however, if Trump had contributed any of his own money. “He’s not going to share that information,” Lewandowski said. Trump himself refused to give the Post any records of where the money went or who it came from.
Trump hasn’t had an easy ride with veterans lately, though they are a well-established demographic for Republicans. Even while Trump was still crowing about his $6 million fundraiser, his top advisers were signaling that part of Trump’s economic plan involved making changes to veterans health programs, including transitioning some veterans over to Medicare.
Trump also refused to apologize to Sen. John McCain after declaring that the Senator, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” camp for years, was not a war hero because he was captured. McCain demanded an apology; Trump said he did not regret the statement because: “[t]here are many people that like what I said. You know after I said that, my poll numbers went up seven points.”
