Few scenes capture the moral imbalance of this administration as clearly as the headlines of this week: The Pentagon accepts a private "donation" of 130 million dollars to pay soldiers during the shutdown. And Donald Trump almost simultaneously declares that he wants 230 million dollars from the Department of Justice - as compensation for his own investigations - to then "pass it on to charity." At first glance, both sound like patriotism, like a president taking responsibility. At second glance, it reveals a system in which public service and personal calculation dangerously overlap.
According to the Department of Defense, the donation was accepted "on the condition" that it be used to cover the salaries and benefits of the troops. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the money was intended to help secure the upcoming payroll. The government had already shifted 6.5 billion dollars from internal reserves the previous week to make the last payment possible. Now, as the next one is due, it remains unclear whether this maneuver can be repeated. Trump himself spoke of a "friend" who had offered the money to bridge gaps. He did not name any names. Our research revealed that the donation was made through a consortium registered in Delaware, whose ownership structure remains opaque. According to information from the Defense Committee, the money has already been transferred to a special Pentagon account - a process that allows little oversight outside budget law.
At the same time, Trump presents himself as a generous benefactor who would, of course, donate the 230 million dollars he is demanding from the Justice Department. "I’m not looking for money," he told reporters. "I would give it to charity." A statement that sounds good but in Trump’s biography stands for a long series of broken promises. In 2019, a court in New York dissolved the Trump Foundation - due to a "shocking pattern of illegality." The supposedly charitable fund had for years financed campaign expenses, business interests, and personal costs of the then candidate. Trump and his children were ordered to pay two million dollars to legitimate charities.
In 2022, a similar picture emerged: Trump’s inaugural committee and the Trump Organization agreed to pay 750,000 dollars after the Washington Attorney General determined that donations had been misused to enrich the president’s family.
Donald Trump presents a check to members of Support Siouxland Soldiers during a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, on January 31, 2016. It had always been Trump’s method - the grand promise, the public gesture, the applause. But what remained afterward was often less than announced.
Today, a new foundation exists - officially for the planned presidential library. Registered in May 2025, it is controlled by Eric Trump, Michael Boulos, and a lawyer from Trump’s New York circle. Here, too, private and public interests intertwine. According to our research, the State of Florida recently attempted to transfer a valuable property in Miami to this foundation - supposedly for the library, but in fact with integrated hotel and residential complexes that could benefit Trump and his family. A court has temporarily stopped the process.
At the same time, Trump claims that surplus funds from his inaugural campaign, proceeds from million-dollar dinners, and settlement payments from Meta, Disney, and Paramount are "intended for the library." To this day, there is no verifiable evidence of a single actual transfer. Even the 400 million dollar aircraft that Qatar gave him and that is currently being refitted at the Air Force’s expense is something he says he will "donate to the library" one day. Anyone familiar with Trump’s past knows that promises in this family are rarely more than props. Hundreds of lawsuits from craftsmen, service providers, and lawyers show that Trump rarely paid bills even in private dealings. His former attorney Rudy Giuliani publicly complained that he was "barely paid." Against this background, Trump’s new gesture of giving seems like rhetorical deception: he demands money from public coffers, stages it as charity - and at the same time directs all attention to himself.
The fact that the Pentagon is now also accepting an anonymous donation while the administration simultaneously cuts social programs is more than symbolic politics. It marks a breach of the dam. When private actors begin to finance the salaries of the armed forces, the state is no longer an institution but a stage for loyalty. Our research also shows that legal concerns have arisen within the Department of Defense: the process could violate the rules governing the acceptance of private contributions to federal agencies as laid out in the Ethics in Government Act. The Office of Government Ethics is also, according to our information, examining whether the transaction constitutes an impermissible attempt at influence - especially if the donor has business interests in the defense sector.
What remains is a picture of indistinguishability: between donation and bribery, between charity and self-interest. Trump’s America turns morality into marketing. Every check becomes a statement, every payment an act of staging. This is not generosity. It is power in its purest form - and, as with everything in this system, it always costs the state.
To be continued .....
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