In advance of this story, The Post sent more than 70 questions to the Trump campaign. Those questions covered the individual anecdotes and statistics contained in this story, including the tale about Trump crashing the ribbon-cutting in 1996, as well as broader questions about Trump’s life as a…
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David Fahrenthold
David Alan Fahrenthold (born January 3, 1978) is an American reporter who writes for The Washington Post and is a contributor to CNN. In 2017, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Donald Trump, including the 2016 United States presidential election. 2Early life and education Fahrenthold was born and raised in Houston, Texas and attended Memorial High School. Fahrenthold's mother is a teacher and his father a CPA. At Harvard University, Fahrenthold wrote for The Harvard Crimson. He graduated with honors in 2000. 2Career Fahrenthold joined the staff of the Post in 2000, where he has covered the District of Columbia police department, the U.S. Congress, and the federal government. 3Reporting on Donald Trump donation claims and the Trump Foundation Fahrenthold covered the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, particularly reporting on the Donald J. Trump Foundation as well as claims Trump made as the 2016 Republican nominee for president that he had given away millions out of his own pocket. In May 2016, Fahrenthold began an effort to verify these personal donations; to solicit leads and for transparency, he periodically posted updates to Twitter via a hand-written list of charities he had contacted to ask whether they had received contributions from Trump, as well as the charities' responses. After four months, Fahrenthold and colleagues at the Post had contacted more than 400 major charities, with only one charity confirming they had received a personal donation from Trump between 2008 and May 2016 when Fahrenthold began publicly reporting on the question. Following Fahrenthold's reporting, the New York attorney general opened an inquiry into Trump Foundation fundraising practices, and ultimately issued a "notice of violation" ordering the foundation to stop raising money in New York. The Poynter Institute described Fahrenthold as "one of the journalism stars of the 2016 campaign due to a string of revelations about Donald Trump's charitable giving (or lack of same)
New findings, for instance, show that the Trump Foundation’s largest-ever gift — $264,631 — was used to renovate a fountain outside the windows of Trump’s Plaza Hotel. Its smallest-ever gift, for $7, was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, at a time when it cost $7 to register a new Scout. Trump’s…
The charity that Trump has given the most money to over his lifetime appears to be his own: the Donald J. Trump Foundation. But that charity, too, was not what it seemed. The Trump Foundation appeared outwardly to be a typical, if small, philanthropic foundation — set up by a rich man to give his…
Instead, The Post found that his personal giving has almost disappeared entirely in recent years. After calling 420-plus charities with some connection to Trump, The Post found only one personal gift from Trump between 2008 and the spring of this year. That was a gift to the Police Athletic League…
Trump promised to give away the proceeds of Trump University. He promised to donate the salary he earned from ‘The Apprentice.’ He promised to give personal donations to the charities chosen by contestants on ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’ He promised to donate $250,000 to a charity helping Israeli…
For as long as he has been rich and famous, Donald Trump has also wanted people to believe he is generous. He spent years constructing an image as a philanthropist by appearing at charity events and by making very public — even nationally televised — promises to give his own money away. It was, in…
In the fall of 1996, a charity called the Association to Benefit Children held a ribbon-cutting in Manhattan for a new nursery school serving children with AIDS. The bold-faced names took seats up front. [...] Then, all of a sudden, there was Donald Trump. ‘Nobody knew he was coming,’ said Abigail…