GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump reportedly made moves Monday to give $1 million to a veterans group four months after first vowing to do so and after The Washington Post pressed him on it.
Trump reportedly called up retired FBI official James Kallstrom, chairman of the Marine Corps – Law Enforcement Foundation, to pledge the money to his organization, according to Kallstrom’s wife who confirmed the call to Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold.
Fahrenthold had been tracking the money Trump raised in a fundraiser in January to benefit veterans groups after the real estate mogul refused to attend the Fox News Republican presidential debate.
Trump had said at the night of the fundraiser that he and his supporters (including a number of his rich friends) had raised $6 million, but Trump’s top aide, Corey Lewandowski, said on Friday that the true total was actually about $4.5 million.
Lewandowski also said that the money had been “fully spent.”
Trump told The Washington Post that he never said he had raised $6 million and didn’t “have the tape of it.” Trump can be heard in video recording of the event saying they had “just cracked $6 million.”
The presumptive nominee said that he didn’t think any of the donors had backed out, and had harsh words for Fahrenthold when the reporter asked Trump if he agreed to give the money in response to pressure from the media.
“You know, you’re a nasty guy. You’re really a nasty guy. I gave out millions of dollars that I had no obligation to do,” Trump said.
Trump railed against the “dishonest media” in a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, again reiterating that he raised $6 million — including $1 million of his own money. He said the coverage was “disgraceful” and that media outlets should instead investigate the Clinton Foundation, run by former President Bill Clinton and his wife and Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Read the full Washington Post article.
