Trump donates salary to the National Park Service

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, and Harpers Ferry National Historic Park Superintendent Tyrone Brandyburg, accompanied by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, hold up a check during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, April 3, 2017. President Donald Trump gave his first quarter salary to the National Park Service | Associated Press photo by Susan Walsh via Boston Herald, St. George News

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — During Monday’s White House briefing, it was announced that President Donald Trump had donated the first three months of his salary to the National Park Service.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer handed a check for $78,333.32 to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Superintendent Tyrone Brandyburg during the briefing.

By law the president must be paid; however, Trump had vowed during his campaign to forgo his presidential salary, a promise he repeated after his victory in November. At Monday’s briefing, Spicer said the check represented the total of Trump’s salary since taking office Jan. 20 until the present.

Zinke said he’s “thrilled” at the president’s decision to give money to an Interior agency, something he said Trump informed him about Sunday night.

Zinke said he will use the money to help on long-deferred maintenance projects on the nation’s 25 battlefields, which include national battlefields, national battlefield parks, national military parks and national battlefield sites. Among these, Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place, saw over 1 million visits in 2016.

Outstanding maintenance projects on those sites amount to about $229 million, Zinke said.

These historic places tell the story of conflicts that helped shape our country’s history,” Zinke said, “and they also honor the many men and women who have given their lives in service of this great nation. I’m honored to help the president carry out his love and appreciation for our warriors and land.”

Despite the donation, critics of Trump have pointed to the fact that the president proposed cutting 12 percent from the Interior Department in his March 16 budget blueprint.

Associated Press reporter JULIE BYCOWICZ contributed to this report.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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8 Comments

  • mmsandie April 4, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    Ha, trumps salary is $500,000 he earns $150 million a year and doesn,t pay taxes and his companies owe taxes fir years,, what about the audit from IRS is over 2 yrs.. When is the answer coming??

    • Brian April 5, 2017 at 12:47 pm

      I’m not a trump fan at all, but I am a fan of the truth. Claiming he doesn’t pay taxes is a lie put out by liberals. The one year we have records for he paid $35 million in taxes, which is more than you and your entire family tree will pay in their entire lives.

      If liberals want fair taxation they should support the Fair Tax or something similar. Same rules for everyone, regardless of race, religion, class, or connection.

    • RealMcCoy April 5, 2017 at 1:20 pm

      You are one of the most uneducated commenters on this site.

      Trump’s salary is $400,000/year, not $500,000.

      It has been PROVEN that he pays his taxes. Proven by Rachal Maddow of the liberal media, and proven that he pays MORE than ‘his fair share’ (more than most libs and democrats that professed he didn’t pay any taxes at all).
      The IRS audit? I will cite your liberal news media so you can’t claim I’m searching ‘Alt-Right’ sources…

      Your liberal news CBSNEWS reports: “… given Trump’s “inordinately large and complex” returns have been “under continuous examination” by the IRS since 2002. The returns from 2002-2008 had been “closed administratively,” but the examination, they wrote, from “2009 year and forward are ongoing.”
      It does not specify which years’ returns after 2009 are being examined.
      They also report that entries in the 2002-2008 returns — even though those audits are closed — could impact the returns currently under an open examination. This likely means that Trump has so-called “carry-forwards” from those years that could affect his tax liability in 2009 and beyond.”

      Also from The New York Times: “… over the weekend revealed that Trump’s personal tax returns declared a loss of $916 million in income in 1995, and that massive loss could be carried forward to lower or cancel out his income taxes for 18 years.”

      Not to mention the fact that Trump legally does not have to disclose his tax returns anyways.

      So now your uninformed ass has a reason for not getting an answer.

      Stop getting your news from the headlines of Yahoo and MSNBC.

      • comments April 5, 2017 at 5:59 pm

        You Trump fanboys have nearly turned your love for him into a religion. I had some hope for him, but that’s all but gone. He’s gonna ramp up this syria mess into something like Bush’s failed Iraq war. he’s a buffoon.

  • Kimi April 4, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    45 will lead to all of our demise. In so many ways. He is evil personified.

    • Utahguns April 5, 2017 at 8:56 am

      Trump helped Companies add 263,000 jobs for the month, ADP and Moody’s Analytics said.
      Maybe you should go get one…..

    • comments April 5, 2017 at 11:19 am

      I agree, and If they cook up another 9/11-type event to further their agenda it’s game over for sure.

  • wilbur April 5, 2017 at 10:18 am

    The man keeps his promises.

    Remember “…if you like your plan, you can keep it…if you like your doctor, you can keep him…”

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