US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on February 12, 2020 (Jim Watson / AFP)

Posts falsely claim Trump donated his salary to rebuild military cemeteries

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 15, 2020 at 01:24
Updated on July 17, 2020 at 20:34
2 min read
By AFP USA, Manon JACOB,

Widely-shared Facebook posts claim Donald Trump donated his $400,000 salary to rebuild military cemeteries in 2019 or 2020. This is false; the US president has donated his salary, but to other causes.

A post from July 2019 complained that Trump's alleged donation to rebuild the cemeteries was not covered in the news.

A screenshot taken on February 13, 2020

But for the first quarter of 2019, Trump donated his $100,000 salary for the period to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), it said.

“President Trump’s 2019 first quarter salary donation went to USDA’s Office of Partnerships & Public Engagement (OPPE), which manages outreach for 1890 and 1994 land-grant universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, youth, veterans, women, new and beginning farmers, faith-based organizations, etc.,” the department told AFP.

For the second quarter, Trump’s donation went to the Surgeon General’s office, deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in a tweet.

And Trump’s salary for the third quarter was donated to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health to help fight the opioid crisis, the White House tweeted.

The same claim resurfaced on Facebook in February 2020 -- here and here -- as well as in April and May.

Trump’s salary for the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 -- the most recent quarters announced -- both went to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in an effort to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs -- which is responsible for the cemeteries -- did receive a donation of $100,000 from the president’s salary in 2018. The money went to support VA’s Caregivers Program, then-press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a briefing at the White House.

Trump has donated his salary to various departments since taking office, including Education, HHS, and Homeland Security.

EDIT: This article was updated on July 17, 2020 to add additional examples of the
claim.

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