Trump is entitled to an annual taxpayer-funded pension of $221,400.

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Donald Trump donated his federal salary, but he's taken $65,600 in pension payments since January 20

By Robin Bravender and Dave Levinthal




Each year of his presidency, Donald Trump donated his $400,000 annual salary to make good on his campaign promise that he wouldn't keep taxpayer cash if elected.

But Trump has been receiving a federal pension since he left office in January, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration confirmed to Insider on Monday.

Through May 14, Trump had received $65,600 from a GSA fund that pays for former presidents' pensions, the spokesperson said.

Trump's net worth is estimated at $2.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Since receiving the taxpayer-funded payments, it's unclear what Trump has done with the money — kept it, donated it, or something else.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the former president's pension payments.

The US Constitution requires presidents to receive a salary while in office but does not require former presidents to take a pension.

Former presidents' are entitled to pensions under a law called the Former Presidents Act. Their pay is equal to the salary of Cabinet secretaries, which is $221,400 in 2021.

Congress passed a law allowing former presidents to receive pensions prompted in part by former President Harry Truman's financial difficulties after leaving office, according to the Congressional Research Service. The Former Presidents Act was an effort to "maintain the dignity of the office" by providing a pension, travel funds, and other perks.

During his presidency, Trump, who continued to reap financial gain from his many business ventures, including the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., often boasted about donating his salary to federal agencies.

In April 2017, Trump donated his salary to the National Park Service even as he proposed deep budget cuts to the Interior Department, which houses the Park Service.

In March 2020, Trump donated his salary to the Department of Health and Human Services as the US health agency grappled with the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump is also using federal cash to pay at least 17 staffers to assist in his post-presidential transition operations, according to documents obtained by Insider. The staffers include his former White House aides Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino.

Trump, a former reality TV star, has also hauled in cash from Hollywood pensions. He received nearly six figures in combined pensions from the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and had received similar payments in the years before.

Trump quit the Screen Actors Guild earlier this year after the group launched an investigation into his behavior surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

"Who cares!" Trump wrote in a letter to the guild, BBC reported.

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