The Slatest

Trump Backtracks on Claim of Having Raised $6 Million for Veterans

Donald Trump in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, on Thursday.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

On Jan. 28 Donald Trump boycotted a Fox News debate and held a fundraiser in Iowa for veterans’ groups. As the event was concluding—and several times afterward—he announced that it had raised $6 million. Subsequent attempts by reporters to verify this figure were stonewalled by the campaign. Now, in response to a Washington Post investigation that could only find evidence of $3.1 million in donations, the Trump operation has backed off the $6M figure:

Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the fundraiser actually netted about $4.5 million, or 75 percent of the total that Trump announced.

Lewandowski blamed the shortfall on Trump’s own wealthy acquaintances. He said some of them had promised big donations that Trump was counting on when he said he’d raised $6 million. But Lewandowski said these donors backed out and gave nothing.

Trump said he would be giving $1 million of his own money away, which would be a departure from his established record of donating very little of his personal wealth. But the Post could find no evidence of the candidate having made personal donations to any of the veterans groups who have received money connected to the fundraiser. (They did find evidence that seven of the other eight major donors, besides Trump, whose gifts were announced on Jan. 28 had followed through.) Here’s what Lewandowski had to say about that:

Who did Trump give to, and in what amounts?

“He’s not going to share that information,” Lewandowski said.

There you have it, then!

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.