A signed Tim Tebow helmet and two large portraits of Donald Trump that the foundation that bears his name paid $42,000 for in total are now valued at $975, according to the foundation’s 2017 IRS filing. The foundation will have to sell these assets off as part of an agreement to shut down with the New York State Attorney General’s office on Dec. 18.
Even more ignominiously than the foundation’s dissolution is that one of the portraits was valued at $700 in 2016, but at $0 in 2017. Trump paid $20,000 for that six-foot tall portrait in 2007. The other portrait, purchased with $10,000 in foundation money in 2014, is now worth $500, the filing states.
The helmet and portraits formed part of the tapestry of reports, led by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, that painted a picture of the Trump Foundation as operating with effectively no oversight. The foundation reportedly passed along donations and made purchases that the attorney general and non-profit tax experts say violate rules against self-dealing and support both political aims as well as other purposes not permitted for charities.
The violations include donations from 1989, its founding year, in which the charity appeared to pay $7 for Donald Trump, Jr.’s Boy Scouts dues and $264,231 to the Central Park Conservancy for the restoration of a fountain that benefitted Trump’s Plaza Hotel. During his presidential campaign, Trump allegedly allowed foundation donations to be controlled by his political operatives.
The agreement with the attorney general made Dec. 18 will liquidate the foundation’s assets, with proceeds going to other charities, and the state having the right to reject beneficiaries it deems unsuitable. But neither the attorney general nor Trump, his family and his organization have agreed to anything else. The state’s lawsuit continues against Trump and his three oldest children, Ivanka, Donald, Jr., and Eric, who served on its board.
