Donald Trump pretends to be a philanthropist, but he rarely seems to follow through.
For as long as he has been rich and famous, Donald Trump has also wanted people to believe he is generous. He spent years constructing an image as a philanthropist by appearing at charity events and by making very public — even nationally televised — promises to give his own money away.
It was, in large part, a facade. A months-long investigation by David Fahrenthold at The Washington Post has not been able to verify many of Trump’s boasts about his philanthropy.
But forget months of research—Kellyanne Conway says she’s seen Trump cut those charity checks.
"He's a very generous man, I've seen him write checks, I've been there when he's writing checks to people," she added.
Donald Trump can write a check. That’s good to know. Ignoring that Conway has only been with Trump since mid-summer, what kinds of charitable contributions has she witnessed?
In fact, Conway said, Trump's run for the presidency is an example of his penchant for civic sacrifice.
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"And the fact is that the idea that somebody who has made such a tremendous sacrifice to run for president — basically a huge sacrifice: didn't need the money, didn't need the fame, didn't need the power, didn't need the status — and you've got a lot of deals that didn't get done, I'm sure, in the Trump Corporation because the guy at the top is running for president," she said.
So … Donald Trump gives to America by the sacrifice of running for president. This goes right on the shelf with the enormous sacrifices Trump spoke of when comparing his suffering to that of the family of Capt. Humayun Khan.
"I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot."
Running for president is being charitable. Tremendous success is a sacrifice. These are statements that would make John Galt find another gulch to hide in.