News Review by Florence Obiukwu
President Donald Trump, who has been getting so much bashing from the critical press, got some relief and deserved thumps up, when the White House announced on Wednesday that he would be donating his second-quarter salary of $100,000, to the Department of Education.
It would be recalled that shortly after winning the presidential election in November, then President-elect Donald Trump vowed to not take the $400,000 salary he was set to earn as the United States’ commander-in-chief.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who made the disclosure said, “It’s that time again, as many of you have probably noticed, for us to announce where the president will be donating his quarterly salary. This quarter the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos while receiving the donation at press briefing said the “generous gift” showed the president’s “commitment to our nation’s students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education.”
She explained that the donation is being used to pay for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) camp sponsored by the department.
DeVos says she is grateful for the donation.
In April, Trump had donated his first-quarter salary of $78,333.32 to the National Park Service to fund the agency’s battlefield preservation efforts, a program that is currently $229 million behind in deferred costs.
Since the President had promised while campaigning as a candidate, not to take a salary if elected, but by law must be paid, so he is donating the money. Taxpayers can write off such donations, potentially lowering their income taxes, according to analysts.
The Trump administration which has already proposed a 13 percent cut to the Education Department’s budget, slashing it by $9.2 billion, may have successfully applied the carrot-and-stick approach to politics, in this instance.