L
ike autumn leaves, sponsored
Cadillacs, Ferraris and
Maseratis descend on the
Trump National Golf Club
in Westchester County, New York, in
September 2016 for the Eric Trump
Foundation golf invitational. Year
after year, the formula is consistent:
18 holes of perfectly trimmed fairways
with a dose of Trumpian tackiness,
including Hooters waitresses
and cigar spreads, followed by a
clubhouse dinner, dates encouraged.
The crowd leans toward real estate
insiders, family friends and C-list
celebrities, such as former baseball
slugger Darryl Strawberry and
reality housewife (and bankruptcy-
fraud felon) Teresa Giudice.
The real star of the day is Eric
Trump, the US president’s second
son and now the co-head of the
Trump Organization, who has hosted
this event for ten years on behalf
of the St Jude Children’s Research
Hospital in Memphis. To date, he’s
directed more than $11 million
there, the vast majority of it via this
annual golf event. He has also helped
raise another $5 million through
events with other organisations.
The best part about all this,
according to Eric Trump, is the
charity’s efficiency: Because he
can get his family’s golf course for
free and have most of the other
costs donated, virtually all the
money contributed will go toward
helping kids with cancer. “We get
to use our assets 100 percent free
of charge,” Trump tells Forbes.
That’s not the case. In reviewing
filings from the Eric Trump
Foundation and other charities,
it’s clear that the course wasn’t
free—that the Trump Organization
received payments for its use, part
of more than $1.2 million that has
no documented recipients past the
Trump Organization. Golf charity
experts say the listed expenses defy
any reasonable cost justification
for a one-day golf tournament.
Additionally, the Donald J TrumpFoundation, which has come under
previous scrutiny for self-dealing
and advancing the interests of
its namesake rather than those
of charity, apparently used the
Eric Trump Foundation to funnel
$100,000 in donations into revenue
for the Trump Organization.
And while donors to the Eric
Trump Foundation were told
their money was going to help
sick kids, more than $500,000
was re-donated to other charities,
many of which were connected to
Trump family members or interests,
including at least four groups that
subsequently paid to hold golf
tournaments at Trump courses.
All of this seems to defy federal tax
rules and state laws that ban self-
dealing and misleading donors. It
also raises larger questions about the
Trump family dynamics and whether
Eric and his brother, Don Jr, can be
truly independent of their father.
Especially since the person who
specifically commanded that the
for-profit Trump Organization start
billing hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the non-profit Eric Trump
Foundation, according to two people
directly involved, was none other
than US President Donald Trump.I
n order to understand the Eric
Trump Foundation, you need to
understand the Donald J Trump
Foundation. The president was never
known for giving his foundation much
money, and from 2009 to 2014, he
didn’t give it anything at all. Outsiders
still donated, though, allowing Trump
to dole out their money to a smattering
of more than 200 charities as if it were
his own, with many of the donations
helping his business interests.
Eric Trump set out to do
things differently. Coming out of
Georgetown, he decided he would
try to translate the good fortune
he had inherited into support for
children’s cancer research. Why
this cause, especially for a guy who
still doesn’t have kids? “It’s a great
question—it’s one that I’ve been asked
before—and I’m not really sure,”
he says. “I think there is something
about that innocence that has
always affected me.” After visiting
various hospitals, he chose to give to
strength, St Jude, the world’s best-
known paediatric cancer centre.
Eric Trump set up his foundation
as a public charity, a classification
that allows it to raise most of its
money from outside donors. In
2007, when he was 23, the first EricThe eRIC TRUMP FOUNDATIONcross border22 | forbes india august 4, 2017The eric Trump Foundation golf outing brought in millions for St Jude, billings for the Trump
grant Lamos iV / getty images Organization