Trump Pays Vets Group After Getting Called Out

Veterans-in-Command, a Queens, New York-based vets group, was in serious need of a cash infusion when it asked Donald Trump for help last year. Trump wasn’t yet a candidate, but Veterans-in-Command official Rodney Moore told the New York Daily News last month that the group might grab the Donald’s attention “because he is from Queens.”

When the group finally heard back from Trump in January, the Daily News reported, all they received were “bumper stickers and requests to attend rallies” and a letter from the Trump campaign informing them they could not make a donation. “Unfortunately we are unable to make donations from the campaign,” read the letter, according to the Daily News. “Mr. Trump is very passionate about giving veterans the best life possible.” The letter was signed “Team Trump.”

So the New York tabloid ran a story drawing attention to the apparent snub, which looked even worse given that Trump had just raised more than $6 million “for the vets” after dropping out of a January 28 debate in Iowa. After the fundraiser, 22 groups were named as recipients of the money, but Veterans-in-Command wasn’t one of them.

Nevertheless, the Daily News story seems to have had an effect on Trump, the paper reports Thursday:

Two weeks after The News highlighted group’s situation, Robertson received a call from apologetic Trump aides. “They said our mail got mixed up with campaign mail and they wanted to make up for it,” Robertson said. While the group is ecstatic over the donations — and expects a visit from Trump in the coming weeks — they can’t and won’t make any endorsements in the heated race for the White House. “It’s about the veterans,” said Robertson. A Trump spokeswoman told The News on Wednesday, “I can confirm they were sent a donation, and we are pleased to hear they have received it.”

That’s a relatively quick turnaround for Veterans-in-Command. Some groups who were promised donations from Trump back on January 29 still haven’t received their checks:

“We found out like everybody else did, when the Trump Foundation put the list up on the website,” said Kerri Childress of the Fisher House Foundation, one of the groups on the Trump Foundation’s list. “And frankly we haven’t heard anything since.” Childress says the Fisher House Foundation has yet to receive a donation, though she was quick to add that it’s not uncommon for pledged donations to take weeks or months to actually be disbursed.

A week later, Childress tells me Fisher House had still not heard from the Trump Foundation or received a check.

Related Content