Apparently, the news has broken over the last day or so that Donald Trump spent on the order of $20,000 donated to a charity he founded to instead have a portrait painted.
In two cases, he has used money from his charity to buy himself a gift. In one of those cases — not previously reported — Trump spent $20,000 of money earmarked for charitable purposes to buy a six-foot-tall painting of himself.
Money from the Trump Foundation has also been used for political purposes, which is against the law. The Washington Post reported this month that Trump paid a penalty this year to the Internal Revenue Service for a 2013 donation in which the foundation gave $25,000 to a campaign group affiliated with Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi (R).
So The Washington Post has gone looking for the painting. So far, they’ve come up empty-handed. They’ve found lots of other self-commissioned portraits of Trump, though.
4/This is a giant portrait of @realdonaldtrump. But *not* the one he bought w/ $20,000 that was meant for charity. pic.twitter.com/8qqp7hBqzy
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 12, 2016
5/This is another giant portrait of @realdonaldtrump. But *not* the one he bought w/$20K that was meant for charity. pic.twitter.com/1wmE4nqXf2
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 12, 2016
A photo I took at Trump Turnberry last year pic.twitter.com/h13Qih1zBX
— Alex Rogers (@arogDC) June 24, 2016
And this:
7/That's all so far. Keep looking! And look out for this helmet, which @realDonaldTrump also bought w/ charity $. https://t.co/eKXYHr1P2Z
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 12, 2016
Even so — and I am telling you the absolute truth — there are people right here in America, where education is free, who plan to vote for that incandescent fraud.