Trump Foundation Dissolved Under Fraud Investigation — Self-Dealing, Political Donations, Portrait Purchases

Overview

The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a charity. Charities exist to benefit others. The Trump Foundation, the New York Attorney General found, was used to benefit Trump: to pay off his legal disputes, to decorate his clubs with his portrait, to make illegal political donations that happened to coincide with prosecutorial decisions favorable to his business interests.

The Bondi Donation

The $25,000 donation to Pam Bondi's reelection campaign arrived while Bondi's office was deciding whether to join a multistate investigation of Trump University. The timing was notable. Bondi's office decided not to join the investigation. The foundation filed an amended return acknowledging the illegal contribution and paid the minimum required penalty.

Bondi later became a prominent Trump defender and spokesperson. She was confirmed as his Attorney General in 2025.

The Veterans Announcement

During the 2016 campaign, Trump held a fundraiser for veterans and announced he had personally donated $1 million. The Washington Post's David Farenthold investigated and found no evidence the donations had been made. After press inquiry, Trump made donations in the days before a scheduled press conference. He then held the press conference attacking the journalists who had asked the question.

The donations existed. They existed because a reporter asked where they were.

The Pattern

The foundation's conduct — illegal political donation, self-dealing transactions, campaign coordination — was not isolated. It was the same pattern as Trump University, Atlantic City, the housing discrimination case: extract, deny, settle without admitting, move on. The difference was that charities are supposed to be different.