Q: Did President Donald Trump donate $1 million to hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas?
A: Despite social media claims to the contrary, there is no evidence of such a donation. He did, however, donate to relief efforts in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey.
FULL QUESTION
Saw a FB post saying Trump personally donated a million dollars to Bahamas Hurricane Dorian relief. True or false?
FULL ANSWER
The U.S. government has assisted the Bahamas through more than $25 million worth of humanitarian relief since Hurricane Dorian hit the islands earlier this month, killing at least 51 people. The Walt Disney Co., Michael Jordan and others pledged money to assist, too.
Social media users, however, have spread an unsupported claim that President Donald Trump has personally donated $1 million to hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas.
“Trump, in his hurtful, hateful, racist, Nazi fashion, just donated $1 MILLION of his own money to the Bahamas Relief Fund,” one post reads.
Some commenters praised the supposed news. “That’s my wonderful President!” one woman wrote. But others rightfully questioned the posts — including several readers who inquired with FactCheck.org about the matter.
The White House has made no such announcement, and we could find no evidence to support the claim.
Two years ago, in September 2017, following Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas, Trump personally pledged to donate $1 million for relief efforts there. The White House at the time officially announced a list of organizations that would receive donations and the amounts for each. Several organizations later confirmed that they had received the money.
Also in September 2017, Trump’s inaugural committee announced that it would donate $3 million divided evenly to three organizations involved in hurricane relief efforts — a pledge that was reflected in the committee’s subsequent tax filings.
Previous hoaxes have falsely claimed that Trump and his family donated $1 billion to a fund for a wall at the southern border (they didn’t) and that the president donated a whole year’s salary to “repair military cemeteries” — which is false, though he does donate his salary to various causes in quarterly increments, as we’ve explained.
But there is no proof to support the assertion that Trump has personally donated $1 million to fund hurricane relief in the Bahamas.
Sources
58th Presidential Inaugural Committee. Form 990 for the year ending October 31, 2017. 6 Feb 2018.
Fichera, Angelo. “Trumps Not Donating $1 Billion for Border Wall.” FactCheck.org. 15 Jan 2019.
Fichera, Angelo and Alexandra Tolhurst. “False Stories Revive Claim About Trump Salary Donation.” FactCheck.org. 7 Aug 2018.
“Statement on President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s Personal Donation to Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts.” White House. 6 Sep 2017.
U.S. Agency for International Development. “The Bahamas – Hurricane Dorian | Fact Sheet #9, Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.” 18 Sep 2019.
“Virginia-Based Sailors, Marines Return After Supporting Relief to Bahamas.” Press release, U.S. Navy. 18 Sep 2019.