Donald Trump's salary to be donated, press corps to decide where

  • 14/03/2017

US President Donald Trump has promised to donate his $578,000 salary to a good cause at the end of the year - and he wants the media's White House correspondents to decide where the money goes.

Mr Trump's press secretary and communications director Sean Spicer made the announcement on the President's behalf at a press briefing.

"The President's intention right now is to donate his salary at the end of the year, and he has kindly asked that you all help determine where that goes," he said to the media gathered in front of him.

The comment would have come as a huge shock to many White House press corps - particularly those from foreign news organisations and national media outlets like CNN, Politico, Buzzfeed and The New York Times, who were recently banned from a press briefing.

It is thought that Mr Trump is wanting to go some way to winning many representatives of those media outlets over, after repeatedly complaining that they were hounding him, and had an agenda against him.

That thought was somewhat confirmed by Mr Spicer.

"The way that we can avoid scrutiny is to let the press corps determine where [Mr Trump's salary] should go," he explained, to raucous laughter.

"In all seriousness, I think his view is he made a pledge to the American people. He wants to donate it to charity, and he would love your help to determine where it should go."

One member of the White House press gallery responded by suggesting it should go towards journalism scholarships, which Spicer said would be "a great way" to use Mr Trump's salary.

Newshub.