New York Congressman demands Trump return $150,000 in 9/11 funds
Last week, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was called out for not donating $1 million to veterans’ groups like he said he would months ago.
He later made the donation and reamed the media for giving him bad press about donating to a charity.
Now he’s getting new calls to cough up more money. This time it isn’t about money he failed to donate, but money he received from the government.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, wants Trump to give back $150,000 he received from the federal government from the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program. Nadler, who represents lower Manhattan, said the program was meant to help small businesses affected by the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Not just gaming the system @Martina - @realDonaldTrump calls himself a New Yorker but exploits 9-11 fund for $ https://t.co/B9awb0637c
— Jerry Nadler (@JerryNadler) May 28, 2016
In a segment on The Last Word on MSNBC, Trump appeared in a video interview dated Sept. 13, 2001.
“I have a lot of property down there,” he told the interviewer. “But it wasn’t unfortunately affected by what happened at the World Trade Center.”
But Nadler said that didn’t stop Trump from applying for and receiving $150,000 from the grant program meant for small business owners who had no income for a year due to the tragedy.
“For him to take $150,000 of this money for no reason at all, for 40 Wall St., which he valued at $400 million, which is hardly a small business, it was just disgusting and small,” Nadler said.
Nadler said Trump was granted the money by the state of New York, which violated federal guidelines by giving it to Trump.
Since there was no legal recourse, Nadler said he was calling on Trump to return the money and said, “his entire career pattern is mooching off government.”
“You took taxpayer money from a grant program designed to help the ‘little guys,’” Nadler said. “Whatever the size of your business, we need no further proof that you are a small man.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 3:28 PM with the headline "New York Congressman demands Trump return $150,000 in 9/11 funds."