Trump Foundation Buys $20,000 Portrait of Trump at Charity Auction, Hangs in Trump Golf Club

The Donald J. Trump Foundation spent $20,000 in charitable funds to purchase a portrait of Donald Trump painted by a speed-painter at a charity gala at Mar-a-Lago. The four-foot portrait, created during the event, was supposed to be sold with proceeds benefiting the charity hosting the auction. Instead, the Trump Foundation bid on and purchased the portrait, then displayed it at Trump National Golf Club in Doral, Florida, providing no charitable benefit while decorating Trump’s for-profit business property with an image of himself purchased using charitable donations from others.

Background

The purchase occurred at a fundraising gala at Mar-a-Lago where artist Havi Schanz created portraits in real-time as part of the evening’s entertainment. The auction format was meant to raise money for the charity hosting the event, with wealthy attendees bidding on various items. When a portrait of Trump came up for auction, the Trump Foundation - ostensibly a charitable organization dedicated to philanthropic purposes - used its charitable assets to purchase the painting for $20,000.

This transaction violated federal tax law governing 501(c)(3) charitable foundations in multiple ways. First, it constituted self-dealing, as Trump used charitable assets to purchase something of purely personal value (a portrait of himself). Second, the portrait was then used to decorate Trump National Doral, providing direct benefit to Trump’s for-profit golf course business rather than any charitable purpose. Third, by 2014, the Trump Foundation was operating almost entirely on donations from others rather than Trump’s own money - meaning Trump was using other people’s charitable contributions to buy portraits of himself.

Washington Post investigative reporter David Fahrenthold tracked down the portrait at Trump’s Doral golf club in 2016, confirming it had been used to decorate Trump’s business rather than serving any charitable purpose. The discovery was part of Fahrenthold’s broader investigation that revealed a systematic pattern of Trump Foundation self-dealing.

Significance

The $20,000 portrait purchase, while smaller than some other Trump Foundation self-dealing transactions, perfectly encapsulates Trump’s narcissistic abuse of charitable status. Using charitable donations to buy portraits of yourself, which then decorate your own businesses, demonstrates both the brazenness of the fraud and Trump’s complete disregard for the legal and ethical obligations that come with operating a tax-exempt charity.

The New York Attorney General’s 2018 lawsuit cited the portrait purchase as one of many examples of illegal self-dealing, noting that the Foundation “was little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.” In 2019, New York Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla ordered Trump to pay $2 million in damages to legitimate charities, citing 19 admitted violations including the portrait purchases. The court also mandated that Trump and his adult children undergo training on proper charitable foundation operation - a judicial acknowledgment that they had systematically violated the basic rules governing charitable organizations.