Ivana Trump Laid To Rest… Near First Hole of Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, NJ

There’s a rumor goin’ ‘round that “The Donald” buried his now-late first wife Ivana on his Bedminster, NJ golf course.

It’s no rumor.

It’s true.

Dr. Brooke Harrington, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, who focuses upon the economic & organizational aspects of sociology, has a professional credential in wealth management, and specializes in “tax optimization” research. She has authored several books on wealth management, and about the mind-boggling efforts that wealthy elites go to, the shenanigans they participate in, and stunts they pull, all in order to avoid paying numerous kinds of taxes.
See: https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/brooke-harrington
See also: https://works.bepress.com/brooke_harrington/

She wrote that, “As a tax researcher, I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks.

“So I checked the NJ tax code & folks… it’s a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.”

She followed up on that theme by writing that the “full text of NJ tax code for land used for human burial” states that there is “no stipulation regarding a minimum number of human remains necessary” for the tax breaks to kick in — [and it] looks like one corpse will suffice to make at least 3 forms of tax vanish.”
See: https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/sales/anj22.pdf

She further substantiated that claim by pointing to extensive investigative reporting published by ProPublica in their Non-Profit Explorer online search tool which showed that “Trump Family Trust” in Hackettstown, NJ (20 miles from Bedminster) has been a 501(c)(13) tax-exempt organization as a cemetery company since May 2016, and was formed exclusively for that purpose.
See: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/465718872

The TFT organization’s 2014 form 990, a tax return which is a public record document, as all tax exempt organizations’ tax returns are, shows that on Schedule O, the Supplemental Information form accompanying form 990, on Part III, Primary Exempt Purpose, and on Part III, Line 28, First Accomplishment, reads that, “The corporation will maintain and operate a cemetery in Bedminster New Jersey for the exclusive benefit of its members on a not for profit basis. No portion of the net earnings will inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. These activities further the exempt purposes by ensuring for the perpetual maintnance [sic] of the cemetery.”

Dr. Harrington opined by writing that, “I was skeptical, because I didn’t think her three children — whom she apparently loved and raised with a great deal of care — would allow her to be treated so disgracefully for what amounts to a handful of silver.

“My bad.”

In September 2020, the New York Times published an article which Dr. Harrington authored on Trump’s history of tax avoidance which was entitled “Trump’s Tax Avoidance Is a Tax on the Rest of Us.”
See: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/opinion/trump-taxes.html

Marry ’em, and Bury ’em

Trump has been scheming on precisely such a matter for quite some time, and has waffled back-and-forth, to-and-fro, here-there-and-yon in a dizzying array of unsettled prospective plans, none of which materialized. And in early 2012, NJ.com and NPR reported that he had originally proposed to build a mausoleum with 4 large obelisks on the property, one which could possibly contain his Earthly remains, including other sites for club members, though he later changed his idea after Bedminster town officials denied his plans calling them “overwhelming and garish.” He then suggested that over 1000 grave sites could be located there, only to change it yet again to propose a much smaller facility. And on November 13, 2014, the New Jersey Cemetery Board met and approved an application from TFT, Inc. (Trump Family Foundation), “to grant TFT, Inc. the “Certificate of Authority to operate as a “Cemetery Company.” A vote was taken and the motion was passed by a unanimous vote.”
See: https://www.nj.com/news/2012/01/donald_trump_death_burial.html
See also: https://www.npr.org/2012/02/03/146342330/fairway-to-heaven-trump-eyes-a-golf-course-burial
See also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-of-donald-trump-and-the-new-jersey-cemetery/2017/03/10/7823f63c-facb-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html

Numerous individuals have characterized the Trump family as grifters, free loaders, chiselers and swindlers who gleefully cheat people out of money as easily as they breathe, and in that process use facetiously extravagant, even outrageously bizarre claims predicated upon the most picayune and inconsequential points to deliberately avoid paying for products purchased, and services rendered to them.

Dr. Harrington wrote that as grossly callous and pathetically tacky as it appears, Ivana’s interment at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster “could not have been Trump’s decision: He had not been her next of kin for decades & had no right to decide her burial place.

“Ivana’s *actual* next of kin — her still-living mom & 3 kids — or the executor of her estate, had to agree to” her being buried there.

“THAT’s the shocker.”

“Train up a child in the way it should go…”

Of course, there’s little denying that Trump trained his 3 now-adult children to be his accomplices since their birth.

For example, it’s well known that eldest daughter Ivanka used her government job in her father’s Presidential administration — which is a blatantly clear-cut case of nepotism, and violation of ethical standards of public trust, if not law — to secure business dealings for her company with Chinese government officials. Specifically, the Chinese government, and the Canadian government, both gave fast-track-approval to several new trademarks for her while her daddy was President, and the Canadian government registered three trademarks following Ivanka’s visit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On March 29, 2017, Ivanka Trump became an official United States Government employee, albeit in an unpaid capacity, as an “assistant” to her father. Her husband, Jared Kushner, had earlier become a U.S. Government employee with the title of Senior Advisor, to then-President Donald Trump, Sr.

Sadly, when queried about whether Mr. Kushner’s appointment violated federal anti-nepotism laws, Daniel L. Koffsky, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice, wrote a lengthy 14-page memo dated Janary 20, 2017, that essentially stated that the rules and laws don’t apply to the President.
See: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/olc/opinions/attachments/2017/01/20/2017-01-20-anti-nepo-stat-who_0.pdf

“In our view, section 105(a) of title 3 exempts appointments to the White House Office from the bar in section 3110 of title 5. Section 3110 therefore would not prohibit the contemplated appointment.”

In response, Richard W. Painter and Norman L. Eisen, who were White House ethics lawyers for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively, wrote a letter to Donald F. McGahn II, then White House Counsel, stating that “This arrangement appears designed to allow Ms. Trump to avoid the ethics, conflict-of-interest and other rules that apply to White House employees.”

In an article for Forbes published 22 September 2020, New York-based news desk reporter Tommy Beer wrote that:

“Over a span of two months in late 2018, the Chinese government granted 18 trademarks to companies linked to President Trump and his daughter. In October alone, according to the Associated Press, China’s Trademark Office granted provisional approval for 16 trademarks to Ivanka Trump Marks LLC. The new approvals covered Ivanka-branded fashion gear, including sunglasses, handbags, shoes and jewelry, as well as beauty services and voting machines. In January of 2019, China granted Ivanka’s company preliminary approval for another five trademarks covering child care centers, wedding dresses, and art valuation services. The applications were filed in 2016 and 2017.”

Of that matter, the independent nonpartisan government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wrote that, “Ivanka receives preliminary approval for these new Chinese trademarks while her father continues to wage a trade war with China. Since she has retained her foreign trademarks, the public will continue to have to ask whether President Trump has made foreign policy decisions in the interest of his and his family’s businesses.”

Mr. Beer further referenced a book authored by Forbes’ Senior Editor Dan Alexander on the matter of Ivanka receiving special favors as an adult daughter of the U.S. President, and wrote that “the Chinese government granted a total of 41 trademarks to companies linked to Ivanka Trump by April of 2019 — and the trademarks she applied for after her father became President got approved about 40% faster than those she requested before Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election.”

Long History of Shady & Self Dealings

The Trump family lost their charitable foundation because son Eric was credibly accused of diverting (stealing) money which was donated to be used for kids that had cancer.

NOTHING the Trump family does should be considered shocking to anyone.

In June 2018, then-New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued the president, his son Eric and daughter, Ivanka, along with the Donald J. Trump Foundation charity. AG Underwood wrote that:

“For more than a decade, the Donald J. Trump Foundation has operated in persistent violation of state and federal law governing New York State charities. This pattern of illegal conduct by the Foundation and its board members includes improper and extensive political activity, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions, and failure to follow basic fiduciary obligations or to implement even elementary corporate formalities required by law.”

Consequently, AG Underwood asked the New York State Supreme Court to “dissolve the Foundation for its persistently illegal conduct, enjoin its board members from future service as a director of any not-for-profit authorized by New York law, to obtain restitution and penalties, and to direct the Foundation to cooperate with the Attorney General in the lawful distribution of its remaining assets to qualified charitable entities.”

Specifically, the NY State Attorney General asked the court to bar then-President Trump from running any New York-based charities for 10 years, and forbid the other directors from doing so for one year.

And, in December 2018, the Attorney General and the defendants reached an agreement to dissolve the Trump Foundation, and to distribute its assets to an agreed-upon list of charities.

However, that agreement did not include AG Underwood’s request that then-President Trump, along with Eric and Ivanka, be barred from operating a New York-based non-profit organization in the future, for varying periods of time.

In January 2019, Letitia James, having won election as New York Attorney General, was sworn in and continued the state’s case against the Trumps.

And on November 7, the state’s Supreme Court published a final resolution of the case, one which neither barred either then-President Trump, nor his children Eric and Ivanka, from running charities in the state of New York.

On that same day, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that the New York Supreme Court ordered then-President Donald J. Trump to pay $2 million in damages “for improperly using charitable assets to intervene in the 2016 presidential primaries and further his own political interests.”

They said WHAT!?! And she’s buried WHERE?!?

But still, Ivana is dead, and gone.

The tragedy was told at her funeral when the family, and others, spoke of their childhood experiences with their deceased mother. The things they all said about her certainly weren’t anything close to being a eulogy — kind and praiseworthy speech, given to extol the deceased, often delivered at funerals.

If only it could have been called that.
See: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/26/why-are-the-younger-trumps-so-awful-did-you-hear-the-speeches-at-ivanas-funeral

But you know what REALLY takes the cake on that matter?

She’s buried near the first hole.

First hole…

Let that sink in.

And what’s more, her final resting place looks like a pauper’s grave.

That’s the foul icing on the rotten cake.

Ivana Trump’s grave site at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, NJ.