PRESIDENT TRUMP AND CHARITABLE GIVING

Please Note: This is factual information and not intended to make a political statement for or against any of the politicians mentioned in this blog post.

In election years, I take some time to report out what the presidential and congressional candidates give to charity. I believe it’s important for Americans to have a good sense of what their elected officials do to support the many charities doing good work throughout the nation.

Until recently, former President Trump’s tax returns were shielded from the public, so I was unable to report on his charitable giving during the 2020 election cycle. Following a series of lawsuits, Congress recently received access to his returns and we now have a picture of his charitable giving.

Though President Trump no longer holds elective office, he is a candidate for President in 2024 and below are the figures for his charitable giving from 2015 through 2020. Future blog posts will provide the charitable giving figures for the other presidential candidates from both parties as we get closer to the 2024 election. You can see the charitable giving for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in a separate blog post.

President Trump and his wife, Melania gave a total of $4.19 million to charity from 2015 to 2020. Here’s what they gave each year and how it compares to their adjusted gross income for that year:

2015: AGI: reported net loss of 31.7 million. Cash gifts: $134,442.
2016: AGI: reported net loss of $32.4 million. Cash gifts: $1,191,210
2017: AGI: reported net loss of $12.9 million. Cash gifts: $1,860,963
2018: AGI: $22.9 million. Cash gifts: $500,150 (2% of AGI to charity)
2019: AGI: $4.3 million. Cash gifts: $504,700 (11.7% of AGI to charity)
2020: AGI: reported net loss of $4.8 million. No gifts to charity.

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