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As Donald Trump began making noise about a possible bid for president in 2. South Carolina conservative activist Oran Smith caught the celebrity businessman’s eye as a particularly vocal and potentially influential critic. Shortly after the story ran, Trump called Smith and invited him to meet at Trump Tower in New York, Smith told Real.

Clear. Politics, “to see if he could convince me those things weren’t true.”“It probably had something to do with, I was in an early primary state,” Smith said. Trump was “laying the foundation for a .. Smith was struck by “a different Donald Trump than I expected.” On his way out the door, Smith asked that Trump consider donating to the Palmetto Family Council.“He was never heavy- handed about any quid pro quo,” Smith said. But Trump delivered.“It was a quiet donation that came with a simple cover letter,” Smith said. It read: “Great meeting with you and your wife in my office,” dated May 6, 2. Enclosed was a check for $1.

Donald J. That check is one of at least several donations to suggest Trump used his private foundation, funded by outside donors, to launch and fuel his political ambitions. Such contributions, if they were made solely for Trump’s benefit, could violate federal self- dealing laws for private foundations.

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From 2. 01. 1 through 2. Trump harnessed his eponymous foundation to send at least $2. Real. Clear. Politics review of the foundation’s tax filings found. In many cases, this flow of money corresponded to prime speaking slots or endorsements that aided Trump as he sought to recast himself as a plausible Republican candidate for president. Although sources familiar with the thinking behind the donations cautioned that Trump did not explicitly ask for favors in return for the money, they said the contributions were part of a deliberate effort by Trump to ingratiate himself with influential conservatives and brighten his political prospects.“He was politically active starting in 2. Trump, and at that point he “started to make strategic donations.”The lion’s share of those donations came from Trump’s personal funds and went straight to political campaigns or parties.

The official website for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Scarborough said McMullin will run as an. He said McMullin will kick off his campaign Monday and has . Bernie Sanders may actually run. Why I'm not taking any campaign contributions for my presidential run. For my presidential campaign.

But others, in particular those directed to the nonprofit arms of conservative policy groups, originated with Trump’s foundation.“If he could do 5. But Trump has not donated to the foundation that bears his name since 2. CNN reported last month, which means other donors bore the cost of his giving. The donations to groups that granted Trump plum speaking slots or otherwise promoted his political aspirations also might run afoul of self- dealing rules for private foundations, which prohibit a foundation’s leadership from using donor money for its own gain.“Getting the right to speak or access to networking events, that’s definitely starting to push into self- dealing, where you’re using the private foundation assets to benefit Mr.

Trump,” said Rosemary Fei, a partner at the Adler & Colvin law firm in San Francisco, where she specializes in charity law. Multiple Trump campaign aides did not respond to requests for comment. This potential conflict echoes other improper donations and practices by the Donald J.

Trump Foundation that have recently come to light during his campaign for president. Earlier this year, the Washington Post revealed that Trump’s foundation improperly donated $2. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2. Trump’s foundation this year paid a $2,5.

IRS as a result, the Post reported last month. The Post also reported that Trump and his wife, Melania, have spent thousands of Trump Foundation dollars at charity auctions for items they have personally kept, including two portraits of Trump and a football helmet signed by Tim Tebow. Most recently, the Post found that Trump’s foundation solicited donations in New York without proper certification from the state.

In the wake of that story, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered Monday that Trump’s foundation immediately stop soliciting donations. Schneiderman, a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, has opened a broader investigation into the foundation, a probe that Trump and his campaign have cast as “political in nature.”But RCP’s review of IRS filings by the Trump foundation turned up a fresh conflict: a 2. The Family Leader, a 5. Unlike a 5. 01(c)(3), or a nonprofit organization, a 5. If the money was sent to the Family Leader Foundation, it was not recorded as such.“There’s a mistake somewhere,” said Fei. But improper reporting is still a violation of tax law.

That’s something the IRS would look at.”The donation also appears to have been geared toward boosting Trump’s political prospects, raising the specter of another possible violation for self- dealing. In the same year that Trump’s foundation made that $1. The Family Leader featured Trump as a marquee speaker for the first time at its influential leadership summit in Iowa.

The announcement raised eyebrows: Craig Robinson, editor of the Iowa Republican blog, wrote that Trump was “an odd fit for a social conservative confab,” while the Family Leader was roundly criticized by other Iowa conservatives for including Trump in the program. But Bob Vander Plaats, the group’s president and CEO, nevertheless heaped praise on Trump — telling RCP at the time that Trump “sure would be” a serious presidential candidate in 2. I think the best predictor of the future is to look at the past, and he’s been a pretty successful guy, so I wouldn’t count him out,” Vander Plaats said. The following year, in 2.

Trump’s foundation donated another $1. The Family Leader — but this time to its nonprofit arm, in accordance with tax law. A spokesman for The Family Leader did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, there are half a dozen other such examples of Trump having used his foundation to help curry or cement favor, the IRS 9. The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for example, might have seemed an unusual political ally for the brash mogul from New York — but in April 2. Graham began to publicly express support for the celebrity businessman as Trump weighed a bid for president. He did not ask for a speaking slot in return, but he did not need to.“Everyone’s too smart to say, .

ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp did not respond to an email from RCP asking whether Trump’s foundation footed the bill or he did. But Trump’s greatest early political exposure might have come from Citizens United, a conservative political group whose president, David Bossie, met with Trump in 2.

More recently, Bossie took leave from his group last month to join Trump’s campaign as deputy campaign manager. In April 2. 01. 4, when Citizens United hosted a “cattle call” of would- be Republican candidates for president in New Hampshire, Trump was there. In January 2. 01.

Citizens United’s Freedom Summit in Iowa, Trump was again on the program. And at the group’s South Carolina summit in May 2.