With President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump will now face Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been endorsed by Democratic leaders and earned the support of enough delegates to secure the nomination. Some social media users have claimed that Trump previously donated to a Harris campaign fund when Harris was the California attorney general. These claims are true.
The website for the California secretary of state shows that Trump donated twice to the Harris campaign, on September 26, 2011, and February 20, 2013, with contributions of $5,000 and $1,000, respectively. His daughter Ivanka contributed to the campaign fund as well, with a $2,000 donation on June 3, 2014. Harris was elected attorney general in 2010 and reelected in 2014.
Trump was a registered Republican when he made both of his donations, but he has changed his registered party affiliation five times since first registering and has been registered as a Democrat, like Harris, during some time periods.
Trump’s donations came at a time when he was facing two lawsuits in California—Makaeff v. Trump University, LLC and Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump—alleging fraud regarding his real estate training program called Trump University. Some speculate that the donations were made to dissuade Harris from taking action against Trump University, however, officials working for Harris at the time said that her lack of action was unrelated to the donations.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, provided The Dispatch Fact Check with a statement that has been shared with other outlets, saying that the donations should be disregarded because “At that time, some 15 years ago, President Trump was a global businessman and knew how to play the game and win the game with corrupt politicians like Kamala Harris. Now he’s going to finish the job of throwing all these crooked politicians out of office.”
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