Donald Trump's $200,000 gift to a veterans group sparked a huge spike in donations — and criticism.
In a commentary for The Hill Thursday, Cliff Sosamon of the Texas-based advocacy group 22Kill said its members' appearance with the Republican front-runner at his controversial January vets' fundraiser crashed the group's website and caused 500 percent increase in donations.
Then there was the bad news.
"Almost immediately, we began to receive emails and social media replies both supporting the mission and also asking why we would support Trump, or why we would consider accepting funds from his rally," he wrote.
"We lost some of our backers because certain individuals do not support Trump."
The group insists it's not endorsing Trump and Sosamon writes any donations, whether they come from the left or right, are all put to use for veterans.
Military Times reports at the time of the January rally — which Trump organized as a
protest of Fox News' choice of debate moderators — several vets' groups said they'd refuse the rally contributions to prevent it from being perceived as an endorsement of the GOP front-runner.
According to Military Times, the Trump campaign hasn't yet fully accounted for the $6 million officials claim to have raised, and that
only a few of the 22 organizations originally listed as beneficiaries have publicly reported receiving donations.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.