President Trump donated a quarter of his salary to the Department of Homeland Security on Monday and tweeted out a photo of the check to prove it.
"While the press doesn't like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000.00 to different agencies throughout the year, this to Homeland Security," he wrote. "If I didn't do it there would be hell to pay from the FAKE NEWS MEDIA!"
While the press doesn’t like writing about it, nor do I need them to, I donate my yearly Presidential salary of $400,000.00 to different agencies throughout the year, this to Homeland Security. If I didn’t do it there would be hell to pay from the FAKE NEWS MEDIA! pic.twitter.com/xqIGUOwh4x
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2019
The check, which was dated March 12, was written out to DHS and had Trump Tower listed as his address.
Before taking office, the president promised to not keep his annual presidential salary of $400,000 for himself.
Some news outlets have questioned whether he actually donates his salary. In 2017, for example, NBC News and Vanity Fair seemed to doubt whether he did given that he declined to release proof.
Prior to his donation to DHS, Trump has given his salary to the Departments of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Education; as well as the Small Business Administration, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, among others.
When DHS was created in 2002 it merged 22 already-existing federal agencies into one. The Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are among those agencies in the DHS umbrella.