Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Trump Says He’ll Donate To Holocaust Museum After Court Shuts Down His Charity

(JTA) — President Donald Trump said he would pay $1.8 million to several charities, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, after losing a civil court case over his misuse of his charity to get elected.

Trump made a statement about the payment on Thursday, after a New York judge ordered him to pay $2 million in damages for misusing funds from a tax-exempt charity — taking the charity’s money to pay debts for his for-profit businesses, to boost his 2016 campaign and to buy himself art, according to court documents.

That order, from state judge Saliann Scarpulla, settled a lawsuit filed against Trump last year by the New York attorney general, the Washington Post reported.

The lawsuit alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at the Donald J. Trump Foundation headed by the president.

As part of the settlement, Trump agreed to disburse the $1.8 million remaining in the foundation to a set of charities, and shutter it for good. In a statement signed by Trump’s attorney, the president admitted to poor oversight of the charity and to seven specific instances where its money was misspent.

In addition the Holocaust museum, the money will go to Children’s Aid Society and the United Negro College Fund.

Trump’s three eldest children — Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric — were also named in the original lawsuit, because they were board members at the Trump Foundation. The board did not meet for 19 years, from 1999 to 2018.

In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James called the settlement “a major victory.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.