Pioneer Press carrying a feed from a related California media outlet.
Harrington and others online said that it would be unusual for Donald Trump, who divorced Ivana Trump in 1990, to have a legal say over where his first wife would be buried. So that would leave it to her survivors, who include her three children, to make the final decision.
Shortly after the death of former President Donald Trump's first wife Ivana was confirmed by the Trump family on Thursday afternoon, the ex-commander in chief asked his supporters for donations to his Save America Political Action Committee.
"I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City. She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social app.
That statement was subsequently copied and posted into an email that had a "DONATE TO SAVE AMERICA" link attached.
A screenshot of the solicitation was first posted to Twitter by MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell.
"Fundraising off this," she said.
MSN:
New Jersey tax code exempts cemetery land from all taxes, rates, and assessments. By burying his ex-wife on his golf course, Trump now has yet another way of avoiding taxes on the 520-acre property. Or at least on the approximately 10-acres around where Ivana is buried.
He already gets a deep discount by growing hay and raising a small herd of goats on the land, which allows him to claim the estate is used for “agriculture”, thus qualifying it as “farmland”, which reduces his tax bill from $80,000 to less than $1,000.
New Jersey’s tax code also exempts cemeteries from from business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and inheritance taxes. It doesn’t take much to see where this is going.
And the Trump family has definitely been pursuing the tax advantages of cemetery ownership. A document published by ProPublica shows that the Trump Family Trust sought to designate a property in Hackettstown, New Jersey, about 20 miles from Bedminster, as a nonprofit cemetery company back in 2016.
But there is reason to question this too-Trumpy-to-be-true allegation. First, all this cemetery business is unnecessary because he has already found a way to drastically reduce his Bedminster tax burden. When the Post’s David Farenthold looked into Trump’s cemetery obsession in 2017, he concluded it wouldn’t be very profitable as a business venture or a tax-avoidance scheme:
… the savings would hardly be worth the trouble. That’s because Trump had already found a way to lower his taxes on that wooded, largely unused parcel. He had persuaded the township to declare it a farm, because some trees on the site are turned into mulch. Because of pro-farmer tax policies, Trump’s company pays just $16.31 per year in taxes on the parcel, which he bought for $461,000.
According to a 2019 HuffPost analysis, Trump slashed his Bedminster tax bill by about $88,000 a year by keeping eight goats and farming 113 acres of hay on the property.
Is is possible that the cemetery business is some kind of backup tax- avoidance scheme? I suppose, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense to this humble TurboTax user.
Trump is as Trump does.
Weird foursome? Before MAGA hats.
UPDATE: The Trump ancestral gravesite is elsewhere than the golf course.
FURTHER: People:
Rather than bring flowers, PEOPLE learns, the Trump family has kindly requested that funeral guests make a donation to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, a Florida-based nonprofit organization aiming to minimize dog homelessness.
The rescue has a longstanding relationship with Trump and wrote after her passing that she "was philanthropically involved with many charities throughout her entire life, but always remained steadfast and passionate in her love for animals."
It was reported to be a lavish funeral, ending at a modest gravesite in a secluded location where Donald Trump has said he'd wish to be buried. The family did as they chose. Ivana may or may not have expressed death procedural wishes, but it seems some of the online speculation might be misdirected. After death, there is no cause for excess splendor as to how a body is interred. Those finding fault with a modest gravesite might rethink whether they overreach in attributing motives amid criticism.
The emailing noted in the AlterNet quote at the top of this post was questionable. But beyond that, one can speculate about motives when the facts might or might not suggest things.
The Trump children do not have to explain themselves to outsiders on this subject, or that is the take-away impression here. They buried their mother.