The Trump family is finding out the hard way that millionaires with shady charitable foundations shouldn’t throw stones at other millionaires with shady charitable foundations.
The New York attorney general just filed suit against President Trump and his three eldest children, seeking to dissolve the non-profit Trump Foundation for “persistent illegal conduct” — which is funny, because it sounds a lot like another foundation under investigation, specifically the Clinton Foundation.
Perhaps to obscure his own affairs and scandals during the campaign, Trump repeatedly targeted the Clinton Foundation, that 501(C)(3) established in 1997 and embroiled in controversy ever since. Those attacks weren’t without merit. Peter Schweizer has made a career of detailing how the Clintons used their charitable foundation to secure favors and funding from business and government.
The sins of the Trumps and the sins of the Clintons in no way cancel each other out. More and more, in fact, the two families seem like carbon copies of each other. But it is an insight into the character of the president that he was capable of accusing his opponent of behavior that he may very well have been doing himself.
If the charges are true, that means that…
When Trump accused the Clintons of using their foundation to “take care of donors instead of the American people,” he knew he had used charitable funds to decorate one of his golf clubs.
When Trump accused the Clintons of using their foundation to “line their own pockets,” he knew he had used charitable funds to pay off his creditors.
When Trump accused the Clintons of using their foundation to defend “the corrupt and rigged status quo,” he knew he had used charitable funds to boost his own campaign.
The Trump family will have their day in court. It is possible, though it seems unlikely, that these charges, leveled by an interim attorney general who has pledged not to run for election, by the way, are trumped up (sorry, not sorry for the pun). If true, it means that this president is capable of sustaining superhuman cognitive dissonance.
