Donald Trump: “I Was Being Sarcastic When I Said I Donated Millions To Charity”

In May, under pressure from the news media, Donald Trump made good on a pledge he made four months earlier: He gave $1 million to a nonprofit group helping veterans’ families. However, in the 15 years prior to the veterans’ donation, Trump promised to donate earnings from a wide variety of his moneymaking enterprises. If he had honored all those pledges, Trump’s gifts to charity would have topped $8.5 million. But in the 15 years prior to the veterans’ gift, public records show that Trump donated about $2.8 million through a foundation set up to give his money away, which is less than a third of the pledged amount.

Speaking recently for The Washington Post, however, the Republican presidential candidate attempted to justify his lack of altruism while on the campaign trail, saying he was being “sarcastic” when he argued that he had donated millions. “You know, let me tell you something important. I’ve stated before that political correctness is killing this country, but now there’s something else that’s just as threatening – stupidity,” he opined. “I honestly have a hard time believing people are actually unable to tell the difference between someone who’s dead serious and someone who’s being sarcastic. Millions in donations? What do I look like, Bill Gates?”

“There’s this old saying that my father taught me, it goes that the difference between a billionaire and an idiot is charity,” Trump revealed. “And that’s one of the smartest things I’ve ever heard. Because, despite what people think, becoming a billionaire is a walk in the park compared to staying one. And let me tell you, when you reach the top, there’s nowhere else to go but back down. And charity is one of the fastest way to do it, to be honest.”

He continued, “Now, I realize millions of people are living incredibly difficult lives, but here’s one for ya – we’re all born equal. And if some of us can rise up and make our dreams come true, that means all of us can. And why some people don’t live up to their full potential is beyond me. Maybe because of the same reason they voted for Obama eight years ago,” Trump didn’t pass up the opportunity to poke his Democratic counterpart.

The self-proclaimed “self-made” billionaire businessman also tried to once again blame the media for being “unjustly persecuted,” and added that he “doesn’t recall when any of the Democratic candidates were asked how much they had donated to charity.”

“And that just tells you how much Republicans are unpopular when it comes to mainstream media. By the way, that’s something I never could get my head around, because we’re supposed to be the good guys, we’re supposed to be the traditional, conservative heroes who aim to make sure this country goes forward, not backwards. But I guess Republicans must be way less charitable in their donations to great media powerhouses compared to the Democrats, I mean that’s gotta be it, right?” he concluded in his own unique way.