What we can VERIFY about Trump's presidential salary donations

While on the campaign trail in 2015, former President Donald Trump promised to forgo his entire presidential salary if elected. 

“As far as the salary is concerned, I won’t take even $1. I’m totally giving up my salary if I become president,” Trump, who will serve again as president beginning in January 2025, said in a September 2015 video posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The president is required by federal law to receive a $400,000 annual salary. When Trump took office his then-press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump planned to donate that money, according to multiple media reports. 

After Trump’s reelection in November 2024, multiple VERIFY readers asked us if the former president fulfilled his promise to donate his salary. Here’s what we found.

THE QUESTION

Did Donald Trump donate any of his salary during his first term as president?

THE SOURCES

• Various White House press briefings held while Trump was in office in 2017 and 2018
• Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s office
• National Park Service (NPS)
• Department of Education spokesperson
• Statement from Linda McMahon, former head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), in October 2018
• Associated Press reports
• Redacted copy of a Trump presidential salary donation check shared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
• May 2019 report from Agri-Pulse, a news outlet covering farm and food policy
• Various X posts from former members of the Trump administration
• August 2020 X post from former Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt

THE ANSWER

Yes, Donald Trump appears to have donated most of his presidential salary. 

WHAT WE FOUND

During his first term, Donald Trump appears to have donated his presidential salary on a quarterly basis in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and at least a portion of it in 2020, according to spokespersons for the Trump administration, multiple federal agencies and various news reports. 

VERIFY was not able to independently confirm all of the salary donations from sources outside of the Trump administration. We found independent proof of the donations or photos of checks in some cases, while other salary donations were only confirmed by Trump’s former press secretaries or administration leaders at the time.

Here’s what we can VERIFY about Trump’s presidential salary donations.

2017

In 2017, Trump gave $78,000 to the National Park Service (NPS) and $100,000 to the Department of Education. 

The Trump administration said he also donated his quarterly salary to the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Transportation (DOT) that same year. The president’s quarter salary would be $100,000, though administration officials did not specify an exact amount in these cases. 

Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s office confirmed Trump’s salary donation of $78,333 to the NPS in a press release on April 3, 2017. That donation went toward two restoration projects at the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland, the National Park Service (NPS) said in July 2017. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Education also confirmed to VERIFY via email on Dec. 2, 2024, that Trump donated $100,000 to the agency in July 2017. 

The White House said at the time that the funds would be “used to host a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-focused camp for students.”

Trump’s quarterly salary donations to HHS and DOT in 2017 were announced during White House press briefings with former press secretary Sarah Sanders and agency officials. 

The salary donation to HHS would be put toward the “planning and design of a large-scale public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction,” Acting HHS Secretary Eric Hargan said during a briefing on Nov. 30, 2017. 

Trump’s salary donation to the DOT was earmarked for the department’s INFRA grant programs, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said during a briefing on Feb. 13, 2018. INFRA grants fund projects that are aimed at improving the “safety, efficiency and reliability” of various transportation systems at the national and regional level, the DOT says.

VERIFY reached out to HHS for further confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. The DOT referred us to Trump’s presidential transition team, who has not responded to VERIFY’s request for comment. 

2018

Trump donated his salary in 2018 to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to various sources. DHS and the NIAAA received $100,000 each, though VERIFY was not able to confirm the exact amount of money given to the VA and SBA. 

Trump’s quarterly salary donation to the VA was announced during a White House press briefing on May 17, 2018. 

The VA had “already earmarked” Trump’s donation “for caregiver support in the form of mental health and peer support programs, financial aid, education training and research,” former acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said during that briefing.

Linda McMahon, former head of the SBA, released a statement upon receiving Trump’s salary donation on Oct. 4, 2018. The gift would “assist the SBA with creating a seven-month intensive entrepreneur training program for veterans,” McMahon said at the time. 

According to an Associated Press report published on Jan. 25, 2019, the White House said Trump donated $100,000 to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

DHS confirmed that Trump donated $100,000 to the agency when it shared a redacted copy of a check dated March 12, 2019.

VERIFY reached out to the VA and SBA for further confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. The NIAAA referred us to the Biden White House press office. 

2019

Trump donated $100,000 each to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Surgeon General’s Office, as well as $200,000 to HHS in 2019, according to various sources.

Agri-Pulse, a news outlet covering farm and food policy, reported on Trump’s $100,000 donation to the USDA on May 16, 2019, citing a White House official. Trump’s contribution would be put toward “outreach programs that benefit farmers,” Agri-Pulse reported at the time.

Former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere announced Trump’s donation to the Surgeon General’s Office in an X post on Aug. 16, 2019. Deere’s post linked out to a USA Today article that said the $100,000 salary donation would “fund an upcoming public health advisory,” according to the White House. Officials did not elaborate on the subject of the public health advisory at the time.

A White House official told the Associated Press in November 2019 that Trump donated his third-quarter salary of $100,000 to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH), a federal agency under HHS which oversees federal public health offices and programs. The White House said the funds were earmarked “to continue the ongoing fight against the opioid crisis.”

Trump’s then-Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in an X post on March 3, 2020 that his final 2019 salary donation would go to HHS to “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat coronavirus.” McEnany shared a photo of a $100,000 check from Trump written out to OASH, dated Jan. 29, 2020.

VERIFY reached out to the USDA, Surgeon General’s Office and HHS for confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

2020

Trump donated his salary to HHS and the National Park Service (NPS) in 2020, according to his administration.

His first-quarter salary donation to HHS would “help in the development of new therapeutics to treat COVID-19 infections,” former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in an X post on May 22, 2020. VERIFY could not find further confirmation of this donation.

In an X post on Aug. 14, 2020, Trump shared an image of a check for $100,000 made out to the NPS and dated July 13, 2020. He said the donation would “help repair and restore our great national monuments.”

Former Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt reposted Trump’s message, writing, “Following @realDonaldTrump’s enactment of the greatest conservation funding legislation in U.S. history, he has again demonstrated his unwavering commitment to improving our national parks, public lands, and monuments.”

The Department of the Interior oversees NPS. 

VERIFY reached out to HHS for confirmation of Trump’s salary donation but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Trump salary donation announcements stopped at the end of his term

For Trump’s first three-and-a-half years in office, his administration publicly announced the quarterly salary donations. But those donation announcements stopped in the middle of 2020.

The White House never said if Trump donated the last $220,000 of his salary, which covered “the final six months of 2020 and the first 20 days of 2021,” according to a report from The Washington Post published in July 2021.

Trump’s 2017, 2018 and 2019 tax returns show that he reported charitable contributions. But those tax returns don’t show where that money went. Trump did not report any charitable contributions on his 2020 tax return.

VERIFY reached out to Trump’s presidential transition team for clarity and to ask if Trump plans to donate his salary again during his second term, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Trump isn’t the only president to donate his presidential salary. Former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover also donated their earnings while in office. 

Former President Barack Obama donated more than $1 million to charity while he was president, Forbes reported in February 2017.