In retrospect, I think the Trump Foundation scam all makes perfect sense now considering Russia.

If you recall during the fall of 2016 prior to the election, there was some major investigative reporting surrounding the Madman's supposed charitable organization, the Trump Foundation. Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold even won a Pulitzer for it.

If you recall, Trump would raise money for charity, but instead of going directly to a specific charity, it would all go towards the Trump Foundation, which we were told would then distribute the money towards the charity. Problem was, records that the Trump Foundation was actually paying out towards charities was rather scant--there was no solid bookkeeping and a lot of the charities that Trump claimed he promised money towards never actually received their gifts. There was evidence that Trump was purchasing items for his own personal benefit--self portraits that lined the walls of his resorts (one that cost $20,000), lawsuit settlements and football memorabilia. Even worse was that Trump himself had stopped donating money towards the Trump Foundation years ago....the money came strictly from other donors.

It was a slush fund, plain and simple.

Of course, as the Russian scandal heated up, the Trump Foundation scandal took something of a back seat. But I think it might be important to consider them both in the same light.

Because if Trump and his business was getting propped up by Russian donors, I'm sure those donors would prefer that money go towards money making ventures that they could get a return on investment, and not charities. So Trump not putting in his own personal (Russian fueled?) money into his charity might make sense in that light.

And the sketchy lack of proper bookkeeping of the Trump Foundation could have meant that portions of that money were skimmed in order to repay lenders.

I think it's quite possible that the Trump Foundation was used by Trump as a money laundering tool that included paying back certain obligations to foreign investors.