charities as if it were his own. so the board of the eric trump foundation started as a group of eric trump s friends, right? that s correct. with no business connections to the trump organization. did eric trump start out with all good intentions for this charity event, and then did it just sort of snowball into something that it looks like he starts out with great intentions. then in 2011, his dad gets involved, and his dad says you ve got to start paying the club. he puts trump organization employees on the board. the board members who are eric s friends start dropping off the board. if you look by 2015, which is the most recent year we have documents on this, the board is made up of 17 people. two of them have the last name trump. six of them are trump organization employees, and one of them did $16 million in business with the trump campaign. so you re looking at a majority of the board who are financially dependent on donald trump at the time the board is making the decis
humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you ve been to areas. .where certain fungal infections are common and if you ve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. don t start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com this is humira at work. president trump s son eric is one of the leaders of the trump organization. the family business. and he also has run a yearly charity golf tournament through the non-profit eric trump foundation. and that golf tournament is at the trump national golf club in west chester county new york and it s to benefit children s cancer research. now the tournament has laudibly raised millions for the caus
for the money that went to the trump organization and we don t know if it went beyond there. and it went to other charities that seem to have business ties and help develop business for the trump organization. and i m floored that one year the costs were over $300,000. i have been involved as a trustee of a charity, and board member of a charity with a number of entities where i ve had to oversee or examine the finances, and i just can t understand how you can spend $300,000 on the costs of a golf tournament. and to be clear, that s money that s being paid to the golf club, which is the trump org right. and also, one more thing, david. i want to continue on this because the forbes reporting suggests when there s a change in the board, originally it s eric trump and his friends and the costs are low.
$220,000. it seemed like a really great formula. a free trump golf course and the goods and services were all donated, assuring donors that every penny possible went to charity. but after about four years, things changed, and i just want to read part of your piece. you said in reviewing filings from the eric trump foundation and other charities, it s clear that the course wasn t free, that the trump organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the trump organization, golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament. so explain this. where did the money go? well, that s the big question. you know, what we know is that in 2011, after years of running this without big expenses, donald trump comes in, and he tells his son and the charity, i know that you re doing a good thing. i know this is for kids with cancer, but you re holding this in my course, and w
no documented recipients past the trump org. additionally, the donald j. trump foundation used the eric trump foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the trump organization. and while donors to the eric trump foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than $500,000 was redonated to other charities, many of which were connected to trump family members or interests. joining me now, olivia nuzzi, washington correspondent for new york magazine and daily beast columnist david k. johnson. let me start with you, as an expert on tax law. i imagine there s possibly an explanation for this that could be provided by the foundation, but on its face, this looks to violate the law? yes. this is what s known as self-dealing. good as it is that the eric trump foundation provided this money to st. jude, they would have gotten about 15% more, but