New Report Suggests Possible Link Between Unrecorded Vince McMahon Payments And Trump Foundation
It's been well documented that Vince McMahon and 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, have a long-standing relationship that dates back over three decades. McMahon and Trump first cultivated a business partnership back in the mid-1980s, during the dawn of WrestleMania. Trump allowed his Atlantic City establishments to play host to WrestleMania IV and V, and their friendship continued over the years, to the point that Trump became a figure on WWE programming, even shaving McMahon's head at Wrestlemania 23. Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. After Trump was elected president, McMahon continued to offer his support. All the McMahons paid visit to the White House after the 2016 election, and Linda McMahon, who ran for Senate back in 2012, was appointed in Trump's cabinet as Small Business Administrator from 2017 to 2019.
Now, both men are currently the subjects of high-profile investigations. Trump's role in the White House riots of January 6 is being thoroughly looked into by the Justice Department, and in recent days, his home in Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI, which was reportedly searching for nuclear documents. McMahon, meanwhile, has been the subject of reporting from the Wall Street Journal that indicates he paid millions of dollars to multiple women to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct, developments that may have led to his premature retirement from WWE. But could McMahon's financial indiscretions also tie back to Trump?
Two $5 Million Payments Made In 2007 and 2009
The money McMahon allegedly paid out to four women over the course of 16 years totaled more than $12.5 million, a number that seemed to have grown when WWE's latest SEC filing revealed two more previously undisclosed payments totaling $5 million. However, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics did some digging, and now suspects that these new unrecorded expenses could in fact be in relation to the Trump Foundation.
"WWE was by far the biggest contributor to the Trump Foundation in 2007 and 2009, giving the organization $4 million and $1 million in those years, respectively, and in round numbers — which adds up to match the $5.0 million mentioned in the new WWE filing," Thurston wrote. "Those were also years when the future U.S. president made rare appearances on WWE television programs." As Thurston references, the aforementioned WrestleMania 23 moment took place in 2007, and in 2009, Trump "bought" the property of "WWE Raw" from under McMahon.
The question of who donated that $5 million to the Trump foundation has remained unclear for over a decade. WWE originally said the money came from the Vincent and Linda McMahon Family Foundation, but in 2012, WWE spokesperson Brian Flinn said the contributions were made by McMahon personally — a clarification possibly made to distance Linda McMahon from those payments due to her then-ongoing Senate campaign.