Friday 1 September 2017

#237 One million dollars

I can't fault the President for donating a million to Storm relief. It's more than I gave. Actually I haven't given anything. Does that make me less generous than Donald Trump? I guess it does.

He certainly has more to give but then he's also given more of what he has, so he wins whichever way you measure it, at least for this particular disaster. I feel slightly guilty and hypocritical for questioning the public nature of his donation but I'm going to anyway. 

Should a person comment publicly on the donations they make? I'm in two minds over this. On one hand, giving silently is very respectable, as it can be a private, personal decision. On the other hand, giving publicaly shines a light on the cause.

Asking reporters where the money should go makes the whole thing seem like a stunt. It's true enough that they might have found out anyway and this prevents him being criticised at a later date but I'm not sure press criticism should be the deciding factor in a charity donation.

Did he really need the press' expertise in this matter? He's the president, he could've asked any expert in the world for an opinion. Some of them might have spat in his face but to him that's just free kink.

The gesture certainly worked. During the past couple of hours, just about every major news company has jumped on the story. With that much attention being paid to your every move, maybe privacy doesn't seem like an option.

8 comments

Running on empty said...

Brilliant post, Dan.

Running on empty said...

Folks, you can follow Dan down there on the right hand side of the page.

KEthical Politics said...

Trump made a pledge, he hasn't actually given the money yet. Today his press secretary said she didn't know for sure if it was coming from his foundation (OPM) or his personal funds. He has a history of making claims but there are no records of his contributions. Recently he pledged to the vets and hedged on the donation until he was shamed into it.
Just as a reminder, during the campaign, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, David Fahrenthold, literally kept handwritten notes and published updates daily on his deep dive into Trump's history of donations and showed that Trump treated the Trump Foundation as a personal piggy bank, spending other people's money while taking full credit. Despicable.

In his research, Fahrenthold found extravagant purchases, including a huge oil painting of Trump himself and a Tim Tebow helmet....and little personal donations. In fact, Fahrenthold only found ONE personal gift between 2008 and 2017 - a gift to the Police Athletic League of New York City in 20009 that was worth less than $10,000.”
"Just as a reminder, during the campaign, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, David Fahrenthold, literally kept handwritten notes and published updates daily on his deep dive into Trump's history of donations and showed that Trump treated the Trump Foundation as a personal piggy bank, spending other people's money while taking full credit. Despicable.

In his research, Fahrenthold found extravagant purchases, including a huge oil painting of Trump himself and a Tim Tebow helmet....and little personal donations. In fact, Fahrenthold only found ONE personal gift between 2008 and 2017 - a gift to the Police Athletic League of New York City in 20009 that was worth less than $10,000.”

Fizzfan said...

Trumps like Teflon. Nothing seems to stick. He seems so bad it's almost unbelievable? It's all a bit like a bad soap opera. Maybe that's a problem in itself. It's almost become tedious. "What's he done now?! Oh god, really?! Yawn........
He's a showman and from a distance he just seems bizarre but quite entertaining.
I find it hard to take him seriously as a politician but then again, look at Bush!? How did he happen?
At least he seems to have handled this disaster significantly better than Bush over Katrina.

Profound Familiarity said...

You're putting me to shame :) this comment is longer than the blog post!

Some relevant facts though. I hadn't even considered that he might not actually make all the donations he pledged.

Profound Familiarity said...

There's plenty of entertainment value. Without making a claim about the morality of his politics, something even Bush was hesitant to do at times, I'll admit really enjoying his memoir, Decision Points. Perhaps he could have called it Confession Points instead but each chapter is about something interesting, from his alcohol problems, to stem cell research, to Katrina and Iraq.

Fizzfan said...

Sounds like good read. Whatever he does or says, there's something so politically incorrect about him, I just can't hate him.

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