Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is defending himself amid recent reports that a January event for veterans didn’t bring in as much money as his campaign had indicated at the time.
“I raised almost $6 million for the veterans, including putting up $1 million of my own money,” Mr. Trump said in a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday.
“I had no obligation to do anything or to do so, and I get nothing but bad press from the dishonest media,” he said. “It is absolutely disgraceful.”
Mr. Trump opted to skip the final GOP presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses and instead hold an event to raise money for veterans’ groups.
In a news release in January, the campaign said Mr. Trump contributed $1 million himself and raised an additional $5 million, bringing the total to “more than” $6 million. CNN and The Washington Post have reported recently that the total was less than that.
“Why don’t they look into the Clinton Foundation? You want to see dishonesty,” he said.
Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said in an interview on “CBS This Morning” that all the money will be distributed by Memorial Day.
“Mr. Trump pledged a million dollars that he has donated personally through his personal accounts, so not through his foundation,” Mr. Lewandowski said. “The accounting that has been attributed to that has shown that $4.5 million already has been attributed.”
He said the total amount given to the veterans will be between $5.5 million and $6 million.
“And don’t forget — this was not an obligation Mr. Trump had,” Mr. Lewandowski said. “This is something that he did to help the veterans so he [can] give back.”
Michael Cohen, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Mr. Trump, also defended his boss on Tuesday, saying some people might not have sent in the money they had pledged to give.
“He went ahead, he raised millions of dollars for veterans and for veteran causes, but unfortunately … people have not sent in their pledges yet, whatever the reason may be,” Mr. Cohen said on CNN’s “New Day.” “When it comes in, Donald Trump will distribute it to the worthy causes.”
“So right now it’s 4 million, or 5 million — whatever the exact number may be — that’s a lot of money for one person to raise, which he did as a result of electing to skip a debate that he knew was going to be unfair to him,” Mr. Cohen said.
“Whatever money has come in as a result of Mr. Trump’s request[s] to people for the donations for the veterans, he has distributed,” he said. “Whatever money came in, Donald Trump has distributed to worthy causes.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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