Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is set to announce the charities that will receive money he raised for veterans’ causes earlier this year, following sustained pressure from media outlets trying to account for the promised funds.
Trump will make the announcement at a press conference at Trump Tower Tuesday morning.
“We just raised almost $6 million for the vets because I didn’t do a television show,” Trump said Sunday at a veterans’ event in Washington. “All of the groups that have gotten the money will be announced on Tuesday. We’re having a big press conference.”
Trump has claimed that he raised $6 million through a combination of pledges from wealthy friends, the public and $1 million from himself after a splashy telethon-style fundraiser he held in Iowa in January in place of a boycotted Fox News debate.
But his campaign has refused to disclose which charities had received the money months, leading some to speculate that the money raised was less than he had claimed.
“I have raised/given a tremendous amount of money to our great VETERANS, and have got nothing but bad publicity for doing so,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
Local New York Veteran affiliated with the group “the #VetsVsHate”are planning a protest outside Trump tower to complain that Trump “has used veterans as political props.”
“Trump has been evasive and dishonest about this money, and only after being confronted for attempting to defraud vets was he shamed into accounting for the missing funds,” the group said in a release.
Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had originally told the Washington Post that the event had raised about $4.5 million — less than the $6 million originally announced by Trump — and that the money had already been distributed.
(AP)