If several Donald Trump’s Republican rivals have any thoughts about the GOP frontrunner’s decision to skip Thursday’s debate in Iowa to hold a fundraiser for his charity foundation, they aren’t speaking up about it.
Trump claims his event, which is being held just down the road from the Fox News-sponsored debate, will seek to raise money for veterans, though the website set up for the occasion actually directs donations to the Donald J. Trump Foundation. The foundation, a non-profit that has given just more than $10,000 to veterans’ groups per year between 2009 and 2013. Trump’s donation form promises that all the money collected in association with Thursday night’s event will go to help veterans, but the specifics end there.
For at least one of his rival campaigns, Trump’s stunt is revealing. “The only beneficiary of Donald’s ‘charity’ is himself, it has always been that way,” said Tim Miller, a spokesman for Jeb Bush’s campaign, in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “His modest donations have largely gone to liberal causes, and if he really cared about the vets he wouldn’t have called POWs losers.”
Two other campaigns, Chris Christie’s and Marco Rubio’s, declined to comment on Trump’s fundraising event. A Rubio spokesman pointed to “what Marco’s said…elsewhere.” In a written statement release Wednesday, Rubio criticized the “theatrics” of both Trump and fellow GOP candidate Ted Cruz, who offered to debate Trump one-on-one after Trump backed out of the Fox News debate.
A request for comment from the Cruz campaign about Trump’s decision to raise money for his foundation was not returned.
Two Republican presidential candidates, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, will attend Trump’s fundraiser.
