Donald Trump spells out charitable gifts, veterans demand apology

Under pressure to account for money he claimed to raise for veterans, an angry and irritated Donald Trump listed charities Tuesday he says have now received millions of dollars from a fundraiser he held in January.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told reporters at a testy news conference in New York that the fundraiser raised $5.6 million US and listed some 40 charitable organizations that received donations, including the Foundation for America's Veterans, the Green Berets Foundation and the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, the last of which received the largest donation of $1.1 million. 

He previously had declined to disclose which charities had received the funds, and his campaign has gone back and forth about how much was raised.

"The money's all been sent," Trump said at a news conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday.

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Trump repeatedly criticized the press for making the money an issue, saying reporters "should be ashamed of themselves" for asking where the money had gone.

Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had originally told the Washington Post that the event had raised about $4.5 million — less than the $6 million originally announced by Trump — because some who'd pledged contributions had backed out. Lewandowski also said all the money had been given out.

Trump contradicted those comments when he later told the Post that the total raised was higher and that his team had been busy vetting the groups.

Trump had claimed during the fundraiser that he'd raised $6 million through a combination of pledges from wealthy friends, the public and $1 million from himself after a splashy telethon-style fundraiser he held in Iowa in January in place of the Fox debate.

But his campaign refused for months to disclose which charities had received the money, leading some news organizations and critics to question whether the money raised was less than he had said.

Media 'very unfair' to him, Trump says

"It was very unfair that the press treated us so badly," Trump complained.

Trump said repeatedly during the news conference that he had not wanted any credit for helping raise the money. But he hadn't appeared to want to keep the donations private when he presented a series of cheques to veterans groups at campaign events in the weeks after the fundraiser.

On Jan. 30, just before the Iowa caucuses, he gave a $100,000 cheque to the Puppy Jake Foundation, which provides service dogs to wounded veterans. Representatives from the foundation, accompanies by several service dogs, accepted the cheque at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa, where Trump was being interviewed on stage by Jerry Falwell Jr.

The next day, in Council Bluffs, Trump presented another cheque, also for $100,000, to Partners for Patriots, which also provides service dogs to disabled veterans.

The cheque presentations trickled off after several days.

Veterans respond

Trump has worked to mend fences with veterans since last year when, in remarks aimed at Arizona senator and former POW John McCain, he said he likes "people who weren't captured" in wars. 

He frequently honours veterans at his rallies, and has come out with a plan to overhaul the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. At a Washington, D.C., biker rally over the weekend, he said people in the U.S. illegally receive better care than military veterans do.

Veterans groups protesting outside Trump Tower on Tuesday accused him of using veterans as "political props" while undermining the values for which they fought.

"Donald Trump cannot buy the votes of veterans of this country," said organizer Alexander McCoy, though he said he was glad to see those groups, some of which he was familiar with, get funding. 

Protesters said Trump's inflammatory remarks against Muslims and other groups stand to put military personnel, and all U.S. residents, in more danger. 

McCoy and others also refuted Trump's claim they had been sent to protest by his chief rival, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. 

"That is unequivocally false," said U.S. army veteran Perry O'Brien. "We're not here because of Hillary Clinton. We're here because of Donald Trump." 

Referring to Trump's earlier remarks about McCain, O'Brien said the presumptive Republican candidate still owes the senator, and veterans as a whole, an apology.