Vince McMahon reportedly made payments to Donald Trump’s charity that were not reported as WWE business expenses

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Vince McMahon made $5 million in payments to the since dissolved Donald J. Trump Foundation charity. The Wall Street Journal reports that the payments were related to Trump’s appearance at WrestleMania 23 and thus should have been recorded as business expenses because they benefitted the company. Trump was paid a $1 million appearance fee, and his foundation was paid $4 million. Unrelated to WWE, Trump later admitted to misusing nonprofit funds and was ordered to pay $2 million to charities as part of a 2019 settlement. Read more at WSJ.com

Powell’s POV: The payments to Trump are among the $19.6 million in unrecorded expenses that led to McMahon resigning from his position as WWE Chairman and CEO. There is a comical detail in the story noting that the contract Trump signed with WWE emphasized that Vince could not shave Trump’s head even if Umaga, the wrestler who represented McMahon in the Battle of the Billionaires match against Bobby Lashley, had died during the match.