Historic battlefields may get Trump salary
Revolutionary, Civil War sites top list for $78,000 he donated
The National Park Service identified projects in three national parks — all Civil War or Revolutionary War battlefields — that could receive money donated back to the government from President Trump’s presidential salary.
At the top of the list are two restoration projects at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, both of which would cost about $78,000 — almost exactly the amount Trump donated from his salary for the first three months as president.
The National Park Service said no final decision had been made. Records obtained by USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act show how the agency scrambled to find suitable projects after the president’s surprise donation, and the Chickamauga and Chattanooga park quickly rose to the top of the list. The park, which straddles the Georgia and Tennessee
border, saw more than 1 million visitors last year.
The records suggest Trump intends to deduct his donation from his federal income taxes.
In a letter accompanying the check, Trump attorney Sherri Dillon directed that the money be used for “exclusively public purposes.” That’s a key condition under the Internal Revenue Code for donations to government entities to be tax-deductible.
In its acknowledgment of the gift, the National Park Service confirmed that “no goods or services were received in exchange” for Trump’s donation — another condition for a tax deduction.
Trump did not direct that his first quarter’s salary be used for any particular park, but Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke settled on a battlefield.
“We’re about $100 (million) or $229 million behind in deferred maintenance on our battlefields alone, and that’s on our 25 national battlefields,” he said April 3 in the White House briefing room.
Park Service records show Zinke’s office was most interested in projects at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
Dedicated five years before Gettysburg, it’s the nation’s oldest battlefield park.
The two projects identified for possible funding are the repair of a section of the Point Park trail, which is threatened by erosion, and the restoration of the Ochs Museum, built in 1938 at the northernmost point of the Lookout Mountain Battlefield.
Also evaluated for possible funding were monuments at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi and Kings Mountain National Military Park in South Carolina.
Trump’s donation caught the Park Service off guard, and accountants wondered whether the president’s check might have been lost in the mail.
The check used in a White House presentation had an outdated address printed on it, and the accountants were worried the check might have gone to a Reston, Va., post office box the agency hadn’t used in 17 years.
The check was eventually deposited in a National Park Service account April 17, the records confirm.