November 1, 2016

The Trump Files: Guess Who Gave Donald His Big Awards

Ivylise Simones

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Until the election, we’re bringing you “The Trump Files,” a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Donald Trump frequently boasts of his hotels and golf resorts, and it’s true that they have won awards. The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has given Trump at least 19 Diamond awards, which it calls “the most prestigious emblem of achievement and true quality in the world today,” for his various properties, according to journalist David Cay Johnston in his book The Making of Donald Trump. It also gave his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, a prize as “the best golf course worldwide.”

All of which sounds impressive. Except that the board of the Academy consisted mostly of Trump’s employees, friends, and family members.

“A majority of the trustees bestowing these awards on Trump and his properties were Trump’s employees, friends, or retainers,” Johnston writes. Two of his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, served on the board of trustees, according to the Associated Press. Trump’s former butler of 17 years, the subject of a Mother Jones story earlier this year for calling on Facebook for President Barack Obama to be “hung for treason,” was also a trustee. Trump himself served on the board and was listed as the Academy’s “ambassador extraordinaire.”

The president of the Academy, Joseph Cinque (a.k.a. Joey No Socks), is a convicted felon with alleged ties to organized crime.

In May, Trump denied having any connection to the organization in an interview with Yahoo News, saying, “I mean, I receive awards from different places sometimes, but I’m not involved in it. How am I involved in it?”

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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