The Donor Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump is always in news but some reason or other for his controversial comments or actions. But all is not bad about President Donald Trump we must agree. He is unique which makes him the central figure for any news item. This time again he is in News, for good reason, it’s a different side of President Trump, as he donates his salary every year to inspire developmental work selecting a department each year.

This year Department of Transportation joined the list of agencies to receive a salary donation from President Donald Trump. This year President Trump is donating his fourth-quarter salary to the transportation department thereby helping the nation address its national structure.

One day after rolling out a major infrastructure plan in the Presidential Budget address, the White House announced that Trump's fourth-quarter salary of $100,000 would go to rebuilding the crumbling transport infrastructure. Sarah Sanders, Press Secretary, White House made the declaration with the Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and other agency officials by her side.

“Today, the president is proud to donate his fourth quarter, 2017 salary to the Department of Transportation to support their programs to rebuild and modernize our crumbling infrastructure” Sanders said.

Elaine Chao praised the president's donation noting that it will help fund grants for projects that will “address critical infrastructures which are being faced by our nation's highways, bridges and ports”. She also said that the backbone of the economy is Infrastructure and to keep the country’s economy competitive, infrastructure must be strong. The president's proposal will create new jobs, strengthen our economy and improve the quality of life for everyone in the country.

During the Press briefing the Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao who also accepted the cheque from the President in the amount of $100,000 declared to the reporters present that the President's salary from the last quarter will now go directly towards the Infra Grant, a program that prioritizes grants for state and local projects.

The grant programs also directly reflect the President's proposal by providing dedicated discretionary funding towards the critical infrastructure projects.

President Donald Trump's donation is only a small fraction of what he wants to spend on infrastructure in the coming years as he himself has puts in. The White House on 12th February 2018 announced a proposal to spend 21 billion dollar on infrastructure in fiscal year 2019, during the President Trump's presidential budget, which would be a part of a larger spending plan that dedicates $200 billion to infrastructure over the next 10 years.

The total expense on federal programs such as maintaining and developing new roads, railways, waterways and bridges will be done with the investment of 1.5 trillion dollars.

While supporters argue it is an important investment in the nation's infrastructure, some Democrats chided the investment as too small to foster enough development.

Transport Secretary Elaine Chao also defended President Donald Trump's infrastructure proposal during the budget declaration amid questions from the opposition about the low amount of federal funding the plan is suppose to provide. Under the administration's proposal, Congress would appropriate $200 billion over the next 10 years to spur what White House officials have said will be more than $1.5 trillion total investment in infrastructure over the next decade.

The Transportation secretary noted Donald Trump's infrastructure plan would place special emphasis on rural development.

This is not for the first time that the President has turned donor, since taking office the president has donated his salary on a quarterly basis to various government agencies. In November last year he gave his quarterly salary to help the Department of Health and Human Services to address the opioid epidemic.

In July, he gave the Department of Education a cheque from his salary to help promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics education among the students and in April, he sent the cheque from his salary to the National Park Service. The Park Service grant will be spent to fix a historic fence and house at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland, a park official said after receiving the amount from the White House.

Donald Trump, who has claimed a wealth of US$10 billion during the Presidential Election Campaign, as a candidate before taking the office of the President, vowed not to take a salary and that he would donate his US$400,000 annual salary.