President Donald Trump’s son Eric filed incorporation papers Friday for the nonprofit that will raise money for his father’s future presidential library– and guess who some of the first donors will be? ABC News and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
The New York Times reported that between the two companies, $37 million will be going to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation as part of the lawsuit settlement agreements.
In December, representatives of ABC News settled a defamation suit by Trump for a $15 million payment toward Trump’s presidential library. The suit was brought as a result of network anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly saying during a March 2024 interview with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina that the former president, who she was supporting for re-election, had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming a victim of rape,” according to the Associated Press.
Mace, who has said she had been a victim of rape, noted that the verdict against Trump was not a criminal court case, but a civil one, meaning the standard of finding him liable was not “beyond a reasonable doubt,” but simply that a New York City jury (during an election season) found it at least slightly more likely than not that the lead Republican candidate did something wrong.
Further, the civil jury did not find he had committed rape, but “sexual abuse,” when he, according to romance novelist E. Jean Carroll’s account, forced her into a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room — most likely in 1996, but Carroll was not sure — and kissed her and tried to have intercourse, but she claimed to have broken away.
Trump has denied that any of this happened and called her a “whack job,” which resulted in another New York jury finding him liable for defamation.
He said during his deposition regarding the alleged department store incident before the first trial in May 2023, “You’re talking about going to a major floor — probably, I assume, the most important floor — a major floor in a major department store, that’s a very busy store, by the way.”
Trump continued, noting that a sexual assault would be heard by those at the “check-out counters and everything else.”
“I mean, it’s the most ridiculous — it’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” he said. “It was just made up.”
Do you ever get tired of seeing Trump outsmart his enemies?
Trump’s attorney pointed out that during the first trial, Carroll’s story was very similar to a 2012 episode of the NBC show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the New York Post reported.
A scene involved a character talking about a role-playing rape fantasy in the dressing room of Bergdorf’s. Carroll told the attorney she was aware of the episode, but had not seen it.
Further, Carroll told Anderson Cooper in 2019 about her then newly released book in which she alleged Trump raped her that she believes “most people think of rape as being sexy. They think of the fantasies.”
Trump posted on Truth Social regarding the interview that the judge overseeing Carroll’s defamation case denied him the opportunity to show it to the jury.
“Judge [Lewis] Kaplan is refusing me my Constitutional Right to Due Process, to defend myself against this False Accusation,” he wrote. “This is a one-sided trial, where the other side is allowed everything, and we are allowed nothing.”
Judge Kaplan refuses to allow the Anderson Cooper Interview on CNN of E. Jean Carroll wherein Carroll says, “Rape is sexy,” and numerous other things that totally exonerate me. Judge Kaplan is refusing me my Constitutional Right to Due Process, to defend myself against this False… pic.twitter.com/rrYuJxipXy
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 26, 2024
ABC News probably did not want the whole thing relitigated in a Florida court (rather than New York), given that the American people had looked at Carroll’s and every other legal attack brought against Trump and decided to return him to the White House. So the network settled the suit.
In addition to ABC’s $15 million, Meta agreed earlier this year to pay $22 million to support the construction of Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit he brought about being banned from the platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protest, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Meta also agreed to pay a combined $3 million for legal fees and settlements for three other plaintiffs in the suit.
“Censorship runs rampant, and the result is a chilling effect cast over our nation’s pressing political, medical, social, and cultural discussions,” Trump’s 2021 civil complaint against Meta read, according to the Journal.
Trump and the other plaintiffs sought a reinstatement of their accounts and a removal of all warning labels from their content.
In January 2023, after the then-former president had announced his re-election bid, Meta reinstated his account.
The AP noted that Trump will likely have to raise significantly more money to entirely pay for his presidential library, in which he wants to include an Air Force One plane like Ronald Reagan’s library.
However, on that donors’ plaque or wall that will no doubt be prominently displayed for visitors, Trump should list ABC News and Meta right at the top. He’d probably take great pleasure in doing so.
Little did the companies know, as they took actions to hurt Trump, that they would be among the first contributors to the library dedicated to celebrating his presidency.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
