Eric Trump is suspending the operations of his charitable foundation — ceasing all fundraising — after facing questions about whether the foundation donors might get special access to members of the first family.
“No new money will come into the ETF bank account,” Trump wrote in an email message on Thursday.
That decision appeared to go beyond a pledge Trump had made a day earlier to the New York Times: In that interview, Trump said he would cease personally raising money for the foundation but left the broader fate of the foundation uncertain.
The Eric Trump Foundation, founded in 2007, raises more than $1.5 million a year through a golf tournament, online auctions and other events. One recent auction, for instance, offered a 10-week paid internship at the Trump Organization, which came with the chance to sit down for 15 minutes each with Eric Trump and his siblings Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. In another auction, the foundation offered a chance to pitch a business idea to Eric Trump over lunch.
The Eric Trump Foundation has one paid employee: Eric Trump did not respond to a question about her job status while the foundation is suspended. The foundation does no direct charitable work but rather passes on the bulk of the money it raises to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a pediatric-cancer center in Memphis. St. Jude named a surgery and intensive-care unit after the Eric Trump Foundation in 2015, after the foundation made a pledge to donate $20 million over 10 years.
Eric Trump says he has raised about $15 million for St. Jude. That figure includes $7.9 million in donations from the Eric Trump Foundation, and $7 million more from other fundraisers he has organized, often held at Trump organization properties. At Trump hotels, for instance, guests can make small donations through their room bills.
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SOURCE: David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post
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