donald trump acted quickly to turn on his attack machine on the vice president, following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, dusting off his mocking nickname: “Laffin’ Kamala Harris”.
But as the Republican nominee refocuses his campaign to target Harris, there’s a strange truth Trump will have to face. And that $5,000 check dated September 26, 2011, with Trump’s distinctive signature, and made out to “Attorney General Kamala D Harris”?
Just hours after Biden’s historic decision was made on Sunday, and with a possible new battle between Trump and Harris looming, Trump’s uncomfortable donation resurfaced on social media. Jared Moskowitz, a Democratic congressman from Florida, posted a photo of the check in your X feed with the words: “It was a smart investment.”
Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, sarcastically: “When Trump signed that check to re-elect Kamala Harris in 2011, I bet he didn’t think she would cash it in 2024!”
In fact, the $5,000 donation was just one of several gifts from the Trump family to Harris during her time as California’s top prosecutor. Records held by the California secretary of state record the largest donation of $5,000, but also provide details of an additional $1,000 check from Trump to Harris dating back to February 2013, at the start of her re-election campaign as state attorney general .
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is also listed in the database as having given Harris $2,000 for her re-election committee in June 2014.
Related: Trump leads Republican insults of Biden after president drops out of 2024 race
The existence of $8,000 in Trump money flowing into Harris’ political coffers could haunt Trump during the campaign, just as it did during the 2020 presidential campaign when she was Biden’s running mate. Then, Fox News discovered details of how the $5,000 donation came about.
Investigating court documents, the channel reported that Trump made the payment at the request of New York’s then-top prosecutor, Eric Schneiderman, who held a fundraiser for Harris in September 2011. Trump was persuaded to buy a ticket to the event for the top price of $5,000, with Ivanka’s presence.
Trump insisted that the fact that he did this favor for Schneiderman, who was later disgraced after being accused of physically abusing several women, had nothing to do with the investigation that was then underway at Trump University.
Contrary to Steele’s joke on social media, Harris will not be able to spend the $5,000 on her 2024 presidential campaign if she secures the Democratic nomination. While the Sacramento Bee reported in 2020, she donated all of the $6,000 he had given her when she began her run for the U.S. Senate, bequeathing it to a civil rights nonprofit working in Central America.
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