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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Donald Trump is now the meanest billionaire in creation - that’s official -- Contrast with the most generous, Irish American Chuck Feeney, never greater

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Donald Trump is now the meanest billionaire in creation - that’s official -- Contrast with the most generous, Irish American Chuck Feeney, never greater

Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2012 at 07:18 AM

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Donald Trump

Donald Trump is the meanest billionaire in creation and it is now official says New York Times columnist Nick Kristoff in his recent column.

Kristoff names CNN founder Ted Turner as the most generous because of his $1 billion gift to the United Nations 15 years ago but he’s wrong there.

All available evidence is that it is Irish American Chuck Feeney who began the ‘Giving While Living’ trend now embraced by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet among others.

Kristoff says Turner was the inspiration for giving while living but it was Feeney, a man I have known well for over 25 years now because of his involvement in Ireland, who led the way.

As Forbes magazine recently noted “Chuck Feeney is the James Bond of philanthropy. Over the last 30 years he’s crisscrossed the globe conducting a clandestine operation to give away a $7.5 billion fortune ....His foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, has funneled $6.2 billion into education, science, health care, aging and civil rights in the U.S., Australia, Vietnam, Bermuda, South Africa and Ireland.

"Few living people have given away more, and no one at his wealth level has ever given their fortune away so completely during their lifetime. The remaining $1.3 billion will be spent by 2016, and the foundation will be shuttered in 2020. While the business world’s titans obsess over piling up as many riches as possible, Feeney is working double time to die broke.”

Meanwhile an investigation by The Smoking Gun website revealed Donald Trump as the meanest of all the billionaires.

He says he is worth $7 billion and he has given away all of $3.7 million in that time the Smoking Gun folks found.

“From 1990 through 2009, Trump has personally donated a total of just $3.7 million to his foundation, which was incorporated in 1987. In fact, the billionaire is not even the largest contributor to his own charitable organization.”

He has given away less about $200,000 a year during that time.

Putting it in context Michael Bloomberg gave away $235 million last year alone. Chuck Feeney is giving that much away before breakfast -- every day, every year.

I remember asking Feeney about Trump and receiving a highly uncomplimentary answer. Seems he had reached out to him once on a non-profit housing venture in one off New York’s toughest neighborhoods but the Donald was not interested,

Of course not.

Jim Dwyer of The New York Times wrote memorably that "Chuck Feeney was what Donald Trump would be if he led his life backward."

As we face a new year the two men represent different visions of the American dream.

One is a chest thumping, look at me Scrooge, the other, embodies the incredibly generous philanthropic soul of this country that is the envy of every other democracy.

I have no doubt whose side we should all come down on.

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patto69 | Jan 02, 2013, 08:08 AM EST

It must be troubling for Trump that despite his untold millions he still has the most ridiculous comb over in the USA. You are baldy fella, accept it and move on.

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seanomelb | Jan 01, 2013, 04:23 PM EST

No chance Smyrnian!! Dissenting views are a healthy part of democracy. Just call me Mr. Cool.

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Smyrnian | Jan 01, 2013, 11:25 AM EST

Sean - take it easy, man. You are going to give yourself a stroke. I realize dissenting views upset you greatly but you need to calm down and try to be cool.

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seanomelb | Dec 31, 2012, 08:22 PM EST

I wonder how Donalds birther campaign is going?? Judy!! Well I suppose he can rely on you and smyrnian for support and from teaparty dopes

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irishpjk | Dec 31, 2012, 07:24 PM EST

wtc. It’s a shame that so many people read something and accept it as fact, that’s one of the reasons why we are in the state we are. I know of a few very generous people that will never be mentioned in many of the rags around that call themselves newspapers. There are also a few who do charitable giving without showing of, actually I think the most generous ones are the ones who do it without bragging, their reward is doing good for others.

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Smyrnian | Dec 31, 2012, 06:55 PM EST

JudySinger - very well said indeed! Thank you!

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JudyStinger | Dec 31, 2012, 12:47 PM EST

The NY Times is on a downhill slide because of their way left opinions and anyone writing representing them has no credibility. The do an all out hate campaign for anyone who disagrees with them, politicians that they support, celebrities and whomever speaks their minds. Like him or not, Donald Trump calls things as he sees them and usually is right. One wonders why Nick Kristoff didn't do his research on our President and Vice President. Although the Obamas did give to charity it was nothing spectacular based on the fact they are millionaires. Joe Biden, our Vice President, gave around 1% of his salary/investments to charity--pretty cheap for sure. Wonder why Mr. Kristoff chose to ignore that fact and instead attack Donald Trump. This is the nonsense that we, who are concerned about our country's downhill spiral, are tired of. Instead of Mr. Kristoff doing some real journalism, an obvious thing of the past with the NY Times, he chooses to sling mud.

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McNamara31 | Dec 31, 2012, 11:38 AM EST

@Fran Connor...Next to nothing? In 2010, the president’s taxable income was a little over $1.7 million, much of it from book sales. Line 19 of his itemized deductions shows that he gave $245,075 in gifts to charity.That would be a rate of more than 14 percent.In 2009, the president’s taxable income was about $5.5 million. He listed $329,100 in charitable contributions on his tax return and also directed the Nobel Prize Committee to give his $1.4 million prize directly to 10 charities (which meant he could not take a tax deduction for donating the prize).In the years prior to his election even though he was paying off college debt he also made contributions.2005: $77,315 to charity out of income of $1.66 million (4.6 percent)2004: $2,500 out of $207,647 (1.2 percent)2003: $3,400 out of $238,327 (1.4 percent)2002: $1,050 out of $259,394 (0.4 percent)Fran you have to stop listening to Huckabee. There's nothing worse than a preacher with a folk tongue.

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Fran Connor | Dec 31, 2012, 10:11 AM EST

Hey Niall, why don't you report what our illustrious president and VP gave BEFORE they became national figures? I'll answer for you - it doesn't fit your agenda. They both gave NEXT TO NOTHING!

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Smyrnian | Dec 31, 2012, 05:08 AM EST

Well, if the NY Times says so it must be true. Yeah, right. Garbage source.

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stanJames | Dec 31, 2012, 12:01 AM EST

I know some people will be upset on this one but Trump is one of the reasons I became a democrat. Thanks to IC for pointng out he's one of the types in modern times who in past ages resulted in a nursery rhym that went:..........The king is in his counting house, counting all his money. ( I forget the rest)

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aloistmartin | Dec 30, 2012, 07:51 PM EST

Donald Trump is as Senseless as a rabid Hedgehog !

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Ken from Dublin | Dec 30, 2012, 06:35 PM EST

Timothy L. O'Brien wrote in his 2005 book, "TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald," that the developer was probably worth $150 to $250 million, rather than the typical estimates of $2 to $3 billion. Trump sued O'Brien for libel, claiming that the book's lower figure killed some potential deals and damaged his reputation. The case was dismissed. Hi TRUE wealth if O'Brien's speculation is true is probably the real reason for his stingy contributions to charity, not that I'm inferring he would donate much more anyway if he was a true billionaire.

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branagh | Dec 30, 2012, 06:26 PM EST

Chuck Feeney is exemplary but unfortunately what seems to his last major "philanthropic" endeavour, ie., the TECHNION CORNELL campus on Roosevelt Island is misquided. TECHNION is at the summit of the military industrial complex in Israel, the same apparatus that killed 800 children in Gaza in the last two major IDF blitzes on that Paletinian concentration camp. Besides,although located where they constitute about 50% of the population Arab students have been systematically excluded from sciences such as physics and mechanical engineering which might have military applications - I suppose you can say this extreme racial profiling is a national security issue for Israel but it's a poor rationale for Mr Feeney to give international credence or imprimatur to this policy by his hefty contribution.

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seanomelb | Dec 30, 2012, 04:43 PM EST

respectfully attacks Turners generosity and by inference supports trup the frump.

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