A Dog walks into a Bar......

A dog limps into a bar looking for the man who shot his Pa.
A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Hey! Why such a long face?”
A mushroom walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve mushrooms in here.” The mushroom replies, “Why not? I’m a fungi!”
A sandwich walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve food here!”
A rope walks into a bar. The bartender says, “We don’t serve ropes in here.” The rope walks outside, ties a knot in the middle of his body, brushes out the strands at the bottom and heads back into the bar. The bartender says, “Aren’t you the rope I just threw out of here?” The rope replies, “No, I’m a frayed knot.”
A pair of jumper cables walks into a bar. The bartender says to them, “I’ll serve you two, but don’t start anything.”
Two peanuts walk into a bar that’s patronized by a rough crowd. One was assaulted.
A pony walks into a bar and whispers to the bartender, “Can I have a beer?” The bartender replies, “Sure, but why are you whispering?” The pony answers, “I’m sorry. I’m just a little hoarse.”
Two cannibals were sitting in a bar having drinks and munching on a clown. One cannibal says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”
A skeleton walks into a bar and says, “Give me a beer and a mop.”
A grasshopper walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender says, “Hey! We’ve got a drink named after you!” Surprised, the grasshopper replies, “You’ve got a drink named Steve?”
A blind man walks into a bar with a seeing-eye dog. He grabs the leash and starts swinging the dog round and round over his head. The bartender rushes over and asks the blind man, “What are you doing?” The blind man very calmly replies, “Just looking around.”
A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar…tender here?”
A giraffe walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Let me guess, a longneck.
A snake slithers into a bar and the bartender says, “I’m sorry, but I can’t serve you.” The snake replies, “Why not?” The bartender answers, “’Cause you can’t hold your liquor.”
A baby seal walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “What’ll you have?” The baby seals replies, “Anything but a Canadian Club.”
A penguin walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “Have you seen my brother?” The bartender replies, “I’m not sure. What does he look like?”
A bear walks into a bar, sits down and asks, “Can I have a margarita and ……….. a sandwich?” The bartender answers, “Sure, but why the big pause?”
A giraffe walks into a bar and asks for a beer. The bartender serves him and says, “That’ll be $7.50. Hey! We don’t get many of your kind in here.” The giraffe replies, “At $7.50 a beer, I can see why not.”

Pence booed at Hamiliton but ..... the worst was yet to come at Cats

Pence booed at Hamiliton but ..... the worst was yet to come at Cats

Why Reality Star, White Trash, Facist and Anti-semite Tila Tequila’s Jew Hatred Is So Disturbing #RIPUSA,#ImpeachTrumpNow,#AmericaHangsItsHeadInShame

Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen (born October 24, 1981), better known by her stage names Tila Tequila, Tila Nguyen and Miss Tila, is a Vietnamese American television and social media personality. She first gained recognition for her active presence on social networking websites and TV Reality Shows like Big brother. After becoming the most popular person on Myspace,]Tequila was offered to star in her own reality television series. Her bisexual-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila(2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere of that year.

Screenshot/Twitter

A glimpse at post-facts-era white supremacy.

In the Daily Beast, Asawin Suebsaeng reports on one heck of a white nationalist convention. The most intriguing guest: one Tila Tequila, known for reality-TV appearances and general scandalousness. Suebsaeng reminds that Tequila “has dabbled in casual anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi declarations over the years, to the point where she has been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League.” (Yup.)

It’s not surprising that someone with an anti-Semitic past would pop up at a white supremacist gathering. What is surprising is this remark by Tila Tequila to the Daily Beast:

“‘And I think that’s why I’m also invited here because I bring a little bit more diversity to the movement.’”

Diversity. To the movement. The movement being white nationalism.

What does one do with this information? My first thought was that we can probably now stop wondering What It Means that Trump both embraces white supremacists and has Jewish family members. White supremacy not only lets in but parades token members of otherwise-hated groups. Tequila’s given name was Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen. She’s identified at various points as lesbian and bisexual, and had a famous relationship with a female socialite. She is, in other words, someone who’d be referred to on the left as a queer woman of color.


But I had a second thought, too! (It’s amazing what the female brain is capable of.) And it’s that we shouldn’t, when analogizing, assume that Americanethno-nationalism, in 2016, would look like the early-mid-century European variety. The demographics are different, as — and this bit’s more recent — is the emphasis on facts. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the country where an actor born Carlos Irwin Estévez is a leading face of white male bigotry lands on a different definition of racial acceptability than did Nazi Germany. So maybe Tila Tequila is being feted on the alt-right because she suggests they’re not as racist as they… seem? claim to be? my head is spinning. Or maybe, if it’s convenient to the right people, she’s just white.

Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen[1] (born October 24, 1981), better known by her stage names Tila Tequila, Tila Nguyen and Miss Tila, is a Vietnamese American television and social media personality. She first gained recognition for her active presence on social networking websites. After becoming the most popular person on Myspace,[2]Tequila was offered to star in her own reality television series. Her bisexual-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila(2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere of that year.

Born in Singapore and raised in Houston, Texas, Tequila moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue her modeling career. After being featured in numerous men's magazines (including Playboy, Stuff and Maxim), she made her reality television debut on the VH1 show Surviving Nugent (2003).

Besides her career in modeling and television, Tequila also pursued her career as a recording artist and author. She was the lead singer of the bands Beyond Betty Jean and Jealousy, before launching a solo career. Her debut single "I Love U" was released in 2007 to mixed reviews. Despite having strong online sales, the song failed to enter any charts. Tequila followed with several independently released singles, including "Stripper Friends" and "Paralyze". In 2010, she released her second EP Welcome to the Dark Side. Her book, Hooking Up With Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party was published in 2008. She has subsequently received attention for her support of Hitler, as well as antisemitic and white nationalist comments,which led to her expulsion from Celebrity Big Brother.

Nguyen was featured on the cover of the April 2006 issue of Stuff magazine; in the interview, she claimed that her nickname "Tila Tequila" came about when she experimented with alcohol at the age of thirteen. She appeared on the August 2006 Maxim UK cover, was named #88 in their Hot 100 List, and also appeared in the December 2007 issue.She was ranked #100 on the Maxim Hot 100 list in 2008.

Nguyen has been featured on the front page of magazines such as Penthouse, King, Blender, and most recently Steppin' Out.

Support for Hitler and Antisemitism

In December 2013, Nguyen caused controversy by posting an article on her website titled "Why I Sympathize with Hitler: Part I", although she stated that her views on Hitler were not derived from antisemitism on her part, nor any feelings toward Jewish people. Nguyen stated:

For those of you who focus on the victims of war well that is just part of war. What do you think war is about? People DIE in wars that is why I am against wars. It brought me to tears because I used to think all of those horrible things about him [Hitler] until I learned the truth about the war and what Hitler truly did and he was not a bad person as they have painted him out to be. Here is a man who was not a coward, stood up for his country in a DESPERATE TIME OF NEED (unlike all of our cowardly leaders), and yet not only did he try his best to help his country and people get out of what was a time of depression, economic collapse, high unemployment, amongst many other things.

She also posted pro-Hitler and antisemitic comments on her Facebook page, as well as photos of herself as a scantily clad Nazi posing in front of a photo of the Auschwitz concentration camp. These actions angered her Facebook followers, and resulted in Facebook closing her account and removing the material in question.

In August 2015, Tequila became a contestant in the sixteenth series of British television reality show Celebrity Big Brother, but was asked to leave the programme on its second day when producers became aware of her comments, and following reports that she had posted images of herself posing before Auschwitz dressed in a Nazi uniform. She subsequently apologized for her earlier comments, blaming them on depression and drug addiction.She also has maintained in social media postings that those pictures were private and blamed both her alt right followers and the mainstream press for their proliferation in social media. Controversy is the best Publicist as Donald Trump who she endorsed for the45th President clearly illustrated.

However, on May 6, 2016, Nguyen tweeted that Jewish-American political commentator Ben Shapiro should "be gassed and sent back to Israel" and later posted that "There are only two things in this world, for which I would gladly sacrifice my own life; the destruction of all Jews and preservation of the white race" and "You know what will help Asians earn respect? An Asian version of Adolf Hitler… I want that person to be me; I want to save the world from this Zionist disease."

In June 2016, Tila Tequila accused Sarah Silverman and the Jews of killing Jesus and  saying the comedian was next on a “celebrity sacrifice” list.

On November 19, 2016, she attended an alt-right meeting celebrating the election of Donald Trump, and posted photos on social media of herself doing a Nazi salute alongside white-nationalists such as Richard B. Spencer.One was posted to Twitter with the text "Seig [sic] heil!" and a raised hand emoji ("✋").As of November 22, 2016, her account has been suspended by Twitter.

Why Reality Star, White Trash, Facist and Anti-semite Tila Tequila’s Jew Hatred Is So Disturbing

Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen (born October 24, 1981), better known by her stage names Tila Tequila, Tila Nguyen and Miss Tila, is a Vietnamese American television and social media personality. She first gained recognition for her active presence on social networking websites and TV Reality Shows like Big brother. After becoming the most popular person on Myspace,]Tequila was offered to star in her own reality television series. Her bisexual-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila(2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere of that year.

Screenshot/Twitter

A glimpse at post-facts-era white supremacy.

In the Daily Beast, Asawin Suebsaeng reports on one heck of a white nationalist convention. The most intriguing guest: one Tila Tequila, known for reality-TV appearances and general scandalousness. Suebsaeng reminds that Tequila “has dabbled in casual anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi declarations over the years, to the point where she has been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League.” (Yup.)

It’s not surprising that someone with an anti-Semitic past would pop up at a white supremacist gathering. What is surprising is this remark by Tila Tequila to the Daily Beast:

“‘And I think that’s why I’m also invited here because I bring a little bit more diversity to the movement.’”

Diversity. To the movement. The movement being white nationalism.

What does one do with this information? My first thought was that we can probably now stop wondering What It Means that Trump both embraces white supremacists and has Jewish family members. White supremacy not only lets in but parades token members of otherwise-hated groups. Tequila’s given name was Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen. She’s identified at various points as lesbian and bisexual, and had a famous relationship with a female socialite. She is, in other words, someone who’d be referred to on the left as a queer woman of color.


But I had a second thought, too! (It’s amazing what the female brain is capable of.) And it’s that we shouldn’t, when analogizing, assume that Americanethno-nationalism, in 2016, would look like the early-mid-century European variety. The demographics are different, as — and this bit’s more recent — is the emphasis on facts. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the country where an actor born Carlos Irwin Estévez is a leading face of white male bigotry lands on a different definition of racial acceptability than did Nazi Germany. So maybe Tila Tequila is being feted on the alt-right because she suggests they’re not as racist as they… seem? claim to be? my head is spinning. Or maybe, if it’s convenient to the right people, she’s just white.

Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen[1] (born October 24, 1981), better known by her stage names Tila Tequila, Tila Nguyen and Miss Tila, is a Vietnamese American television and social media personality. She first gained recognition for her active presence on social networking websites. After becoming the most popular person on Myspace,[2]Tequila was offered to star in her own reality television series. Her bisexual-themed dating show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila(2007), aired for two seasons and became MTV's second highest-rated series premiere of that year.

Born in Singapore and raised in Houston, Texas, Tequila moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue her modeling career. After being featured in numerous men's magazines (including Playboy, Stuff and Maxim), she made her reality television debut on the VH1 show Surviving Nugent (2003).

Besides her career in modeling and television, Tequila also pursued her career as a recording artist and author. She was the lead singer of the bands Beyond Betty Jean and Jealousy, before launching a solo career. Her debut single "I Love U" was released in 2007 to mixed reviews. Despite having strong online sales, the song failed to enter any charts. Tequila followed with several independently released singles, including "Stripper Friends" and "Paralyze". In 2010, she released her second EP Welcome to the Dark Side. Her book, Hooking Up With Tila Tequila: A Guide to Love, Fame, Happiness, Success, and Being the Life of the Party was published in 2008. She has subsequently received attention for her support of Hitler, as well as antisemitic and white nationalist comments,which led to her expulsion from Celebrity Big Brother.

Nguyen was featured on the cover of the April 2006 issue of Stuff magazine; in the interview, she claimed that her nickname "Tila Tequila" came about when she experimented with alcohol at the age of thirteen. She appeared on the August 2006 Maxim UK cover, was named #88 in their Hot 100 List, and also appeared in the December 2007 issue.She was ranked #100 on the Maxim Hot 100 list in 2008.

Nguyen has been featured on the front page of magazines such as Penthouse, King, Blender, and most recently Steppin' Out.

Support for Hitler and Antisemitism

In December 2013, Nguyen caused controversy by posting an article on her website titled "Why I Sympathize with Hitler: Part I", although she stated that her views on Hitler were not derived from antisemitism on her part, nor any feelings toward Jewish people. Nguyen stated:

For those of you who focus on the victims of war well that is just part of war. What do you think war is about? People DIE in wars that is why I am against wars. It brought me to tears because I used to think all of those horrible things about him [Hitler] until I learned the truth about the war and what Hitler truly did and he was not a bad person as they have painted him out to be. Here is a man who was not a coward, stood up for his country in a DESPERATE TIME OF NEED (unlike all of our cowardly leaders), and yet not only did he try his best to help his country and people get out of what was a time of depression, economic collapse, high unemployment, amongst many other things.

She also posted pro-Hitler and antisemitic comments on her Facebook page, as well as photos of herself as a scantily clad Nazi posing in front of a photo of the Auschwitz concentration camp. These actions angered her Facebook followers, and resulted in Facebook closing her account and removing the material in question.

In August 2015, Tequila became a contestant in the sixteenth series of British television reality show Celebrity Big Brother, but was asked to leave the programme on its second day when producers became aware of her comments, and following reports that she had posted images of herself posing before Auschwitz dressed in a Nazi uniform. She subsequently apologized for her earlier comments, blaming them on depression and drug addiction.She also has maintained in social media postings that those pictures were private and blamed both her alt right followers and the mainstream press for their proliferation in social media. Controversy is the best Publicist as Donald Trump who she endorsed for the45th President clearly illustrated.

However, on May 6, 2016, Nguyen tweeted that Jewish-American political commentator Ben Shapiro should "be gassed and sent back to Israel" and later posted that "There are only two things in this world, for which I would gladly sacrifice my own life; the destruction of all Jews and preservation of the white race" and "You know what will help Asians earn respect? An Asian version of Adolf Hitler… I want that person to be me; I want to save the world from this Zionist disease."

In June 2016, Tila Tequila accused Sarah Silverman and the Jews of killing Jesus and  saying the comedian was next on a “celebrity sacrifice” list.

On November 19, 2016, she attended an alt-right meeting celebrating the election of Donald Trump, and posted photos on social media of herself doing a Nazi salute alongside white-nationalists such as Richard B. Spencer.One was posted to Twitter with the text "Seig [sic] heil!" and a raised hand emoji ("✋").As of November 22, 2016, her account has been suspended by Twitter.

" Déjà vu" As they slam the oven door again, The Danger of the Hypocrisy of Jews Who Line Up Behind Steve Bannon’s Twisted Vision of America.#RIPUSA,#AmericaHangsItsHeadnShame,#KeepTrumpInCheck,#ImpeachTrumpNow

The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Jews Who Line Up Behind Steve Bannon’s Twisted Vision of America. will american and World Jewry's response when they slam the oven door again be just " Déjà vu"

For many years now, American Jews have been told to worry about anti-Semitism from the left, from those whose criticism of Israel veers into rank de-legitimization of the Jewish state. Well-funded efforts have sprung up to defeat this “new anti-Semitism,” especially on college campuses, and it’s getting to the point where support of the movement to boycott, sanction and divest from Israel is equated with betrayal of the Jewish people.


So obsessed are we with looking for threats from one direction that we have missed the growing danger from another.

Unleashed by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and cemented by the appointment of Stephen Bannon to a powerful position in the White House, the anti-Semitic sentiments of the far right are closer to the center of political power than they have been in recent memory.

This “new, new anti-Semitism” is largely limited to social media onslaughts and is nowhere near as pervasive as the global efforts to isolate Israel and Israelis. (For now.) But ignoring it, dismissing it, excusing it, hoping it will go away — as some Jewish leaders are doing — is not only perilous, it’s hypocritical and self-defeating.

Unless we denounce and work against the hatred coming from the right with the same energy and resources used to combat hatred from the left, we risk losing allies and diminishing our own moral standing.
“We now know that there is a coherent threat from the right as well as from the left,” Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and a wise observer of the American Jewish scene, told me. “I don’t know why there isn’t a coherent response to the right.”

When I spoke to him and others about this development late last week, everyone was waiting to see what role, if any, Bannon might play in a Trump administration before sounding the alarm bell. Now we know: chief strategist and senior counsel to the president.
“We need to do a serious reckoning,” said Deborah Lipstadt, who is writing a book about anti-Semitism and as the preeminent historian on Holocaust denial, knows of what she speaks. “It’s been so convenient for people to beat up on the left, but you can’t ignore what’s coming from the right.”
Bannon is both the poster child for this development, and the reason it will be a complicated reckoning. Some of the Jews who have worked with him at Breitbart News are lining up to vouch for his tolerant character.
“I have Saturdays off, Jewish holidays off and Steve Bannon always wishes me a ‘Shabbat shalom’ on Friday afternoon — just in case you were concerned about that,” Joel Pollack, Breitbart’s senior editor at large, told NPR.

Joel Pollak
Even more, his Israel politics are hawkish enough to make Mort Klein, the very hawkish head of the Zionist Organization of America, boast that Bannon will attend the ZOA’s annual awards gala on Sunday.
Bannon may be, as Klein insisted, “the opposite of an anti-Semite,” but the news organization he oversaw until he joined the Trump campaign unabashedly embraced the white supremacist movement that is anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, anti-Muslim — and at times, anti-Semitic. “We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon proudly told Mother Jones last summer.
Some of those pro-Trump alt-right guys are the ones sending horrific anti-Semitic messages laden with Holocaust imagery to Jewish journalists — and others — around the country.
As our Naomi Zeveloff explained earlier this week, it’s possible to be Zionist and anti-Semitic at the same time. Some, like Bannon, see in Israel a (white) nationalist, anti-Arab country worth supporting — over there. Here, in America, they may accept, even respect, individual Jews, but their ideological aim is to cleanse the country of its multiculturalism and restore privilege to white Christian males.

So, according to this logic, as long as you support certain policies of the current Israeli government, it’s okay to pal around with people who hate Jews.
That is, apparently, much more acceptable than being a proud, devout Jew who doesn’t happen to support the policies of the current Israeli government. That will earn you the title of anti-Semite.
The hypocrisy here is not only breathtaking, it’s self-defeating. The Jews in America who are the target of anti-Semitic threats and harassment — and here I include many of us at the Forward — must make common cause with other minority groups who are experiencing this and worse in today’s toxic political environment. The undocumented worker fearful of deportation. The Muslim subject to hate crimes.
If, instead, Jews excuse the far right’s hateful behavior because
Read also

Steve Bannon Signals Coming Storm for Jews in Age of Donald TrumpChemi Shalev (Haaretz)November 14, 2016

Donald Trump Refuses To Condemn White Supremacist Event With Nazi Salutes

Stop Panicking and Start Inviting Donald Trump Supporters to Your Next Shabbat Dinner
What Does It Mean To Be Jewish in Donald Trump’s America?Jane EisnerNovember 8, 2016

4 Things Breitbart Got Dead Wrong About the Forward Jane Eisner November 16, 2016

Will Steve Bannon Be the Anti-Semitic Firebrand in Donald Trump’s Inner Circle?Forward

Jared and Ivanka, Separate Business From Politics Before You Become Walking Anti-Semitic Tropes

Republished from The Forward . The Forward (Yiddish: פֿאָרווערטס‎; Forverts), also called The Jewish Daily Forward, is an American newspaper published in New York City for a Jewish-American audience. The organization publishes two newspapers, weekly in English (The Forward) and biweekly in Yiddish (Yiddish Forward or Forverts) and websites updated daily in both languages. Forward has a circulation of 65,000 copies per issue... The article is republished unedited with permission of the Author Jane Eisner and The Forward 

.It is one in a series of articles by Jane Eisner on what the election of Donald Trump will mean to Jews and Israel.Jane Eisner, a pioneer in journalism, became editor-in-chief of the Forward in 2008, the first woman to hold the position at the influential Jewish national news organization. Under her leadership, the Forward readership has grown significantly and has won numerous regional and national awards for its original journalism, in print and online.

#RIPUSA Trump Foundation admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows

Trump Foundation admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows By David A. Fahrenthold ( Republished with permission of the Author and the Washington Post)




Painter Michael Israel, left, poses with Donald and Melania Trump in 2007 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club. Trump spent $20,000 that belonged to the Donald J. Trump Foundation to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of himself painted by Israel. (Michael Israel)


President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.

That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were posted online Monday evening at the nonprofit-tracking site Guidestar. A Guidestar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.

The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.

In one section of the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family, or a Trump-owned business.

The foundation checked “yes.”

The Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold explains how Donald Trump directed people who owed him money to make their payments to the tax-exempt Donald J. Trump Foundation instead. (Peter Stevenson, Lee Powell/The Washington Post)

Another line on the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again.

Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf.

During the presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported on several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation’s money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses.

[Trump boasts about his philanthropy. But his giving falls short of his words.]

But the new Trump Foundation tax filings provided little detail, so it was unclear if these admissions were connected to the instances reported in The Post.

The Trump Foundation tax forms did not, for instance, describe any specific acts of self-dealing. They also did not say whether Trump had paid any penalties already. That kind of detail would be submitted on a separate IRS form, which was not included in the information posted online Monday.

Spokespeople for Trump’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment sent early Tuesday morning.

Inside The Post's investigation of Donald Trump's charitable giving (Peter Stevenson, Julio Negron/The Washington Post)

The New York Attorney General’s office is investigating Trump’s charity, following up on reports in The Post that described apparent instances of self-dealing going back to 2007. A spokesperson for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to comment, other than to say “our investigation is ongoing.”

The IRS also did not immediately respond. That agency has not said if it is investigating the president-elect’s charity.

The Trump Foundation has existed since 1987. This appeared to be the first time that it had admitted committing such a violation.

Philip Hackney, who formerly worked in the IRS chief counsel’s office and now teaches at Louisiana State University, said he wanted to know why the Trump Foundation was now admitting to self-dealing in prior years — when, in all prior years, it had told the IRS it had done nothing of the kind.

“What transactions led to the self-dealing that they’re admitting to? Why weren’t they able to recognize them in prior years,” Hackney said. He said that, since the prior years’ returns were signed by Trump, that opened the president-elect to questions about what and how he had missed.

Trump Foundation 2015 tax filing

During the presidential campaign, The Post revealed several instances — worth about $300,000 — where Trump seemed to have used the Trump Foundation to help himself.

In two cases, The Post reported, the Trump Foundation appeared to pay legal settlements to end lawsuits that involved his for-profit businesses.

In one case, Trump settled a dispute with the town of Palm Beach, Fla., over a large flagpole he erected at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The town agreed to waive $120,000 in unpaid fines, if Trump’s club donated $100,000 to Fisher House, a charity helping wounded veterans and military personnel. The Trump Foundation paid that donation instead — effectively saving his business $100,000.

In another, Trump’s golf course in Westchester County, N.Y., had been sued by a man who had won a $1 million hole-in-one prize during a tournament at the course. The man had later been denied the money, because Trump’s course had allegedly made the hole too short for the prize to be valid.

The lawsuit was settled, and details on that final settlement have not been made public. But, on the day that the parties told the court that their lawsuit had been settled, the Trump Foundation donated $158,000 to the unhappy golfer’s charity. Trump’s golf course donated nothing.

In three other cases, Trump’s foundation paid for items that Trump or his wife purchased at charity auctions. In 2012, Trump bid $12,000 for a football helmet signed by then-Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.

In another case, from 2007, Trump’s wife, Melania, bid $20,000 on a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump painted by “speed painter” Michael Israel during a gala at Mar-a-Lago. And in 2014, Trump bid $10,000 to buy a four-foot painting of himself by artist Havi Schanz at another charity gala.

[How a Univision anchor found the missing $10,000 portrait that Trump bought with his charity’s money]

In all three cases, the Trump Foundation paid the bill. Tax experts said that, by law, the items had to be put to charitable use. Trump’s spokespeople have not said what became of the helmet or the $20,000 portrait.

The $10,000 portrait was, however, located by Washington Post readers, following coverage of the Trump Foundation. It was hanging on the wall of the sports bar at Trump’s Doral golf resort, outside Miami.

In September, a Trump campaign spokesman rejected the idea that Trump had done anything wrong, by using his charity’s money to buy art for his bar. Instead, spokesman Boris Epshteyn said, the sports bar was doing the charity a favor by “storing” its art free of charge.

Tax experts said that this argument was unlikely to hold water.

“It’s hard to make an IRS auditor laugh,” Brett Kappel, a lawyer who advises nonprofit groups at the Akerman firm, told The Post then. “But this would do it.”

In the new 2015 tax filing, the Trump Foundation acknowledged for the first time that it owned these items. But it listed market values far below what the foundation had paid: the helmet was valued at $475. The portrait purchased for $20,000 was valued at $700. And the portrait purchased for $10,000 was valued at $500.

The tax filing did not give any details about where these items are or what charitable use Trump has in mind for them.

The Trump Foundation’s tax filing also shows that — for the first time in six years — the foundation received a donation from an entity controlled by Trump himself.

It lists a donation of $566,370 from the Trump Corporation, an entity 100 percent owned by Trump himself. It also lists a $50,000 gift from Trump Productions, a Trump-owned business that produced “The Apprentice.”

Previously, the last donation to the Trump Foundation from Trump or one of his businesses had come in 2008. Trump’s spokespeople did not respond to a question about the reason for these new gifts.

In addition, the Trump Foundation reported a $150,000 gift from the foundation of Viktor Pinchuk, a powerful Ukrainian steel magnate. That was the first such gift from Pinchuk.

Pinchuk, who supports closer ties between Ukraine and western nations, had also pledged large donations to the foundation of Trump’s presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Those donations, pledged to the Clinton Foundation while Clinton was secretary of state, raised questions about whether Clinton had conflicts of interest when she met with her family foundation’s donors.

A spokesman for Pinchuk’s foundation said that the gift was made as part of an agreement for Trump to speak — via video link — to a conference Pinchuk organized in September 2015. The conference, called the Yalta European Strategy Annual meeting, was held in Kiev. At the time of his 20-minute speech, titled “How New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World,” Trump was already a presidential candidate.

Trump’s spokespeople did not respond to a question about Pinchuk’s gift.

Marc S. Owens, the former head of the IRS nonprofit division, noted that this was a rare contribution to the Trump Foundation from overseas. The only other foreign gifts were small ones from New Zealand and Canada in 2006 and 2008. And it was certainly the first from a foreigner who could seek to influence the foreign-policy agenda of a President Trump.

“The contribution points out a potential way for foreign donors to align themselves with [Trump],” Owens said.

The Post was first alerted to the 2015 tax filing by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group. In a written statement, CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz said many questions remained to be answered.

“Why were the Trumps unable to provide locations of the Foundation’s assets like paintings and football helmets . . . when they clearly remain in the possession of the Foundation? What assets do [they] admit to transferring to a ‘disqualified person?’” Libowitz wrote. “It’s pretty clear at this point that the IRS needs to investigate.”


In all, the 2015 tax filing shows that the Trump Foundation took in $781,000 and gave away $896,000 in grants during 2015. That left it with $1.1 million at year’s end, slightly down from the year before.

An early look at its outgoing grants showed a familiar pattern: Trump gave to a smattering of New York and Florida charities, plus a few connected to friends and business partners. Also, as he entered the presidential race, he gave to several nonprofits connected with conservative causes.

One of them was Project Veritas, the group run by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, which has used hidden-camera stings to target liberal groups. Stephen Gordon, of Project Veritas, said that its point of contact had been Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s one-time campaign manager.

He said they had a brief meeting with Trump in 2015, at Trump Tower. Trump gave $10,000 from his foundation to the group, which is an IRS-certified nonprofit.

“We showed him a couple of videos. He thought that was really cool. And we walked out with a check. It was a typical donor meeting,” Gordon recalled.