26 | forbes india august 4, 2017
The eRIC TRUMP FOUNDATION
of Eric, left. They were replaced
by 14 new board members, the
majority of whom owed all or much
of their livelihoods to the Trump
Organization. Six of them were
effectively full-time employees,
including Trump lawyer Michael
Cohen and executive vice president
Dan Sca vi no Jr, who both serve in
political roles for President Trump.
Another owns a company that billed
the Trump campaign $16 million.
Add in Eric himself, as well as his
wife, Lara, and 9 of the 17 Eric Trump
Foundation board members had a
vested interest in the moneymaking
side of the Trump empire. The
foundation had become a de facto
subsidiary of the Trump Organization.
“They were wearing two hats,”
says Langan, the former director of
golf, who says he sat in on meetings
where he couldn’t tell where the
business ended and the charity began.
“You’re dealing with people talking
about the event and the charity who
also at the same time are thinking
about it as a corporation and as a
business. It’s a for-profit club. You
know, they’re trying to make money.”
Until this board turnover, the
Eric Trump Foundation pretty
much did what it told its donors it
would: Send its money to St Jude.
But starting in 2011, more than
$500,000 was redirected to a variety
of other charities, many of which
were personal favourites of Trump
family members and several of which
had nothing to do with children’s
cancer—but happened to become
clients of Trump’s golf courses.
In 2012, the Eric Trump
Foundation sent $5,000 to a charity
called Abilis, which provides services
to people with disabilities. That same
year, Donald Trump’s nephew Fred
Trump, whose son has cerebral palsy,
hosted the inaugural Golf for Abilis
fundraiser at the Trump National
Westchester. Over the next five years,
Abilis spent an estimated $240,000
hosting tournaments at the property.
In 2013 and 2014, the Eric
Trump Foundation paid $15,000 for
tables at a gala for the Little Baby
Face Foundation, according to a
spokesman for the latter foundation.
Over the next three years, Little
Baby Face spent an estimated
$100,000 to hold golf outings on
the Trump course. The foundation
denies any direct connection
between the two transactions.
Janet McHugh, the founder of a
small charity named Julie’s Jungle,
was delighted to receive $25,000
from the Donald and Eric Trump
foundations in 2013—money she
figured came from Eric and Donald
Trump personally. Two years later,
her charity hosted a golf tournament
at Trump National Hudson Valley.
McHugh says the decision to hold her
tournament there was unrelated to
the donation. “They didn’t comp us
the golf course,” she says. “We paid.”
Altruism as a business-
development strategy isn’t
necessarily illegal. But a situation inwhich outside donor money is
redeployed away from the core
mission in ways that seem to
ultimately benefit the family that
pays the majority of the board is—at
best—an appearance problem.
Other extra expenditures raise
eyebrows. In 2013, Eric Trump used
his foundation’s money, rather than
his own, to pay $1,600 to the American
Society for Enology & Viticulture for a
copper wine still and an antique bottle
washer at a trade event and fundraiser
that he was keynoting. Eric runs the
family vineyard in Char lottes ville,
Virginia, about an hour down the road
from where the event took place. “I
have no idea what that is,” says Eric
Trump, referring to the payment.
In 2012, the Eric Trump
Foundation wrote a cheque for
$25,000 to the George Rodrigue
Foundation of the Arts. That same
year, George Rodrigue, who had said
that his famous “blue dog” paintings
sometimes sold for about $25,000,
created a portrait of Donald Trump
for the auction at Eric’s event. That
portrait ended up hanging over the
couch in Eric Trump’s house.
What does Eric say about the
donation? “Let’s follow up later on,”
he replies, when asked about it in a
phone call, before getting off the line.
Later the next day, after being told
Forbes had several other questions, he
sent a paragraphs-long text message,
which read in part: “I was reflecting
on it last night and have to say I was
really disappointed when you said the
story would be ‘fair’... It seems like
there is a motive against either myself
or my family. And if that is the case,
I would simply rather disengage.”
A spokesperson for the Trump
Organization similarly declined
to respond further to questions
about Eric and Donald Trump.T
he ultimate tragedy here
is that the Eric Trump
Foundation has done so
much good. Yes, Eric has indulged
in the family trait of vainglory, fromMorE T han $500,000 was
redirected to a variety of other
charities, several of which had
nothing to do with children’s
cancer—but happened to become
clients of Trump’s golf coursescross border