Trump Donations to Clinton Foundation Add to Gun Owner Concerns

First we need to make sure the fingers behind his back aren't crossed.

I see Pat Buchanan and Ilana Mercer just came out with approving columns on Donald Trump that do not mention the following concerns I raised in my May 15 Gun Rights Examiner column (and previous columns). Because so few seem to be aware of these concerns, I am reposting that article with minor corrective edits here:

Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and his daughter have donated “at least $105,000 to the Clinton Foundation,” The Hill reported Thursday. Contributions, per the Foundation website, “advance the work of any part of the Clinton Foundation, including the Clinton Global Initiative.”

That would be the same group behind the Clinton Global Citizen Award, presented to anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg by Vice President Joe Biden for being the “most fierce and most effective advocate that we have on the matter of gun sanity.”

Trump has come across as effectively bipolar on guns.

“I love the NRA, I love the Second Amendment, so you have to know that,” Trump proclaimed at April’s National Rifle Association Leadership Forum in Nashville. “I promise you one thing, if I run for president, and if I win, the Second Amendment will be totally protected, that I can tell you.”

That doesn't exactly square with past statements -- by a long shot. True, he’s not against the concept of guns in private hands, under controlled circumstances, as Trump is one of the few elite recipients of a New York City concealed carry permit. But where does he stand on other aspects of the right to keep and bear arms that will interest gun owners looking for candidates worthy of their support?

Trump has a record on the issue from a prior time he was thinking about tossing his hat into the ring.

“Dems and Reps are both wrong on guns,” he declared in 2000, offering what he presumed to be an acceptable middle ground. “Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed. The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions.

“I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun,” he elaborated.

Add to that a troubling history of not just generous financial support for the Clinton Foundation, but to a host of anti-gun Democrats, enabling them to retain their ability to attack the right to keep and bear arms.

“Over the past decade, Trump has given massive amounts of money not only to Democrats but the most liberal and most corrupt Democrats, such as Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and Charlie Rangel,” former Rep. Tom Tancredo noted in 2011. He has given $116,000 in recent years to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He supported John Kerry in 2004…”

Asking if he's a "secret liberal," Business Insider noted "Donald Trump Has Given Much More Money To New York Democrats Than Republicans."

Still, Trump found another issue that resonates with NRA members who are seemingly unaware that their association intentionally ignores it (when not promoting those enabling it): Illegal immigration leading to a "pathway to citizenship."

“You look at what’s happening with Mexico, the border is a sieve,” Trump continued, broaching an issue NRA has thus far been deliberately indifferent to under a “single issue” excuse that does not withstand close scrutiny. “Everybody’s coming in illegally, millions of people coming in illegally, we've got to stop it at the border, and we have to stop it fast.”

The room ate it up, along with his "American jobs first" theme, and ended up giving Trump a standing ovation. Perhaps their enthusiastic reaction would have been tempered had his inspiring sentiments been compared to his record.

Again, Trump appears to have learned the right words. He recognizes Republicans are on a “suicide mission” in which “11 million people will be voting Democratic," that “anchor babies” becoming citizens “was never the intention behind the 14th Amendment,” and that even “legal immigrants do not and should not enter easily ... we must take care of our own people first.”

With that being the case, Trump’s “D-“ grade from Numbers USA in 2011 (including an "Abysmal" rating on "limiting unfair foreign worker competition") points to a serious disconnect between rhetoric and substance on immigration. Likewise, his donations to the Clinton Foundation and to vehemently anti-gun Democrats raise serious doubts over what he told cheering NRA members and what he actually would enable if they entrusted him with political power.

As this column observed in 2012, Trump could be a great friend if his seeming enthusiasm for the Second Amendment is real. How we could go about determining that, aside from doing things backwards -- trusting him and then seeing if he ends up earning it -- is unclear.

The bottom line: The guy has some serious explaining, disavowing and apologizing to do, and that includes outlining unequivocal ways to prove he is being sincere, as opposed to self-serving and manipulative.