Since the election I’ve seen articles circulating from alt-right websites praising Donald Trump for refusing to take the presidential salary. Oh, what a magnanimous gesture from him. He is a supposed billionaire, after all, and doesn’t really need the money. Well, not so fast. The devil, as usual, is in the details.
Donald Trump did say that he would forgo the presidential salary if he were elected to the position. He said it first in a Twitter Q and A:
.@Modern_Do_Good #asktrump pic.twitter.com/I7AaH7AVRw
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015
And then later at one of his famous rallies:
“The first thing I’m going to do is tell you that if I’m elected president, I’m accepting no salary, OK? That’s not a big deal for me.”
When did he say that? In October of last year, just a few months after he threw his hat in the Republican primary ring and many months before he actually became the GOP nominee. He hasn’t said anything officially on the subject since. And since we know that he’s already started backtracking on some of the many ridiculous promises he made on the campaign trail, who knows if he actually intends to go through with it?
But say he decides to be more charitable than I’m giving him credit for. As a licensed attorney, I can tell you that not accepting the presidential salary isn’t a choice he gets to make. Why? 3 U.S. Code § 102, which is the federal law that governs how much the Presidential salary is:
“The President shall receive in full for his services during the term for which he shall have been elected compensation in the aggregate amount of $400,000 a year, to be paid monthly, and in addition an expense allowance of $50,000 to assist in defraying expenses relating to or resulting from the discharge of his official duties.”
