One year after President Trump’s inauguration, the committee in charge of the ceremony has not disclosed how it plans to spend leftover money or how much money it still has on hand, according to a new report.
USA Today reports that the committee, chaired by Tom Barrack, has not detailed its plans for the surplus money.
“We must decline comment at this time,” Kristin Celauro,a spokeswoman for Barrack, said in a statement to the newspaper.
{mosads}Trump’s inaugural committee announced in April that it had raised $106.7 million to pay for the festivities, thanks to major donations from companies like Boeing and Quicken Loans as well as wealthy individuals like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
The committee said at the time it would donate any leftover funds to charity, but didn’t say which organizations the money would go to.
In September, The Associated Press reported that the committee had yet to donate its leftover funds to charity despite the pledge.
Later that month, The New York Times reported the committee planned to give $3 million to three charities involved in hurricane relief efforts following storms that devastated Florida, Texas and the Gulf Coast.
“The surplus of these privately donated funds will be put to great substantive use for relief victims throughout the heartbreaking regions of America impacted by the recent catastrophic disasters,” Barrack told the Times in an email at the time.
Two of the charities — the American Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse — refused to comment to USA Today when asked about the donations, saying they didn’t disclose information about donors. The Salvation Army didn’t respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump, has said some of the surplus money went towards renovations of the White House and the residence of Vice President Pence and his family at the Naval Observatory, according to USA Today.
Steve Kerrigan, head of former President Obama’s 2013 inaugural committee, told USA Today that it was “entirely appropriate” for some surplus money to be used for White House renovations, but also said it was “shocking” that the committee had yet to disclose information about how it would use the extra funds.
“It is alarming that you would potentially have at least $50 million left over and no sense of how it was spent,” Kerrigan told the newspaper.