White House has yet to pick Trump aid recipient

$1 million gift evokes Trump’s donor history.

The White House is still trying to decide who will get President Donald Trump’s pledged $1 million donation for Harvey storm relief efforts, one of the largest gifts ever given by a president but one that has evoked his checkered charitable past.

The president plans to make the donation, which is expected to come from his personal fortune, early next week, and it may be split among several groups doing relief work in storm-ravaged areas of Texas and Louisiana. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that the president hasn’t finalized where the money will go, raising some concern that charitable groups may end up competing for the money.

For the second straight day, Sanders invited reporters to make recommendations for which groups should get the money.

“If you have suggestions, he is very open to hearing those,” Sanders said.

The president met with three relief groups — the Red Cross, Southern Baptist Relief and Salvation Army — in the Oval Office on Friday and pledged the nation’s support to those affected by Harvey.

Trump traveled to Texas on Tuesday and is scheduled to return today to meet with storm survivors and inspect some of the destruction.

White House officials said the donation would come from the president’s personal fortune and not his business, the Trump Organization, or his charitable foundation.

“You have to take him at his word,” said Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor at Indiana University who focuses on philanthropy and who formerly headed the Corporation for National and Community Service. “If he wants to lead the way, that’s one of the things that a president’s supposed to do. ... He does like the image of himself as a compassionate person.”

Trump’s history of charitable donations features bursts of generosity frequently overshadowed by failure to keep promises to donate and questions about the source of the gifts. The exact extent of Trump’s charitable giving is not known since the president has broken with decades of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns.