Phony Charity Aligns With Trump

by Gary Snyder

The host of Donald Trump’s speech on the deck of the U.S.S. Iowa was an organization called Veterans for a Strong America.  

The organization describes itself as a “a nonpartisan action organization dedicated to educating the public, members of Congress and the Executive Branch about a strong national defense, robust foreign policy and building a military that is second to none.” 

Joel Arends is the the CEO of the organization and Trump endorser.

The organization had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS because it failed to submit Form 990s for three years running.

“The illegitimacy of Veterans for a Strong America isn’t just that it purported to be a nonprofit when its tax exemption had already been revoked, that in all likelihood the people who purchased tickets for the Trump speech thought they were purchasing from a nonprofit, that the U.S.S. Iowa Museum gave the Arends group a preferential rate because its chief executive took Arends at his word that the group was a nonprofit, or that it made an explicit endorsement of a presidential candidate violating 501(c) rules. Veterans for a Strong America was and is clearly yet another fake organization willing to use and abuse veterans for the personal or political ends of the man who created it,” said prominent charity commentator RICK COHEN. (Nonprofit Quarterly)ht

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