Recent salary donations go to the Health Department

Trump continues to fulfill his 2015 campaign promise that he will forgo his salary. 

The Constitution doesn't allow the president to reject his earnings, which originally forced George Washington to accept the first presidential salary, so Trump began donating his salary quarterly in April 2017. The first $100,000 went to the National Park Service, and since then, he has donated to various federal departments.

Most recently, Trump donated the last two quarters of his 2019 salary and his first quarter of his 2020 salary to the Department of Health and Human Services. The department is working on two issues that Trump designated for the funds: the opioid crisis and COVID-19.

The Associated Press reported on Nov 26, 2019 that Trump's 2019 third-quarter salary went to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, an operating agency within HHS. The funds were earmarked for "the ongoing fight against the opioid crisis."

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on March 3, 2020, that Trump's 2019 fourth-quarter salary was being donated to the HHS to support the department's efforts to "confront, contain, and combat #Coronavirus." The tweet also featured a picture of Trump's check to the office from January.

The 2020 first-quarter salary donation was mentioned briefly by the press secretary at a press conference on May 22, 2020. McEnany said the first quarter would again be going to HHS, this time to "develop new therapies for treating and preventing COVID-19 so that we can safely reopen." 

In a tweet, Judd Deere, the deputy press secretary, confirmed that Trump's first-quarter 2020 salary will be going to HHS for "the development of new therapeutics to treat #COVID19 infections." 

We rate this Promise Kept.