On the campaign trail, Donald Trump vowed not to take his presidential salary, promising instead to either give it back to the Treasury or to donate it.
Now, Trump is President of the United States and makes $400,000 a year, or $33,333 a month. But there is no word on where that money is actually going.
MSNBC asked the White House and the Treasury Department but didn’t get any answers or documentation concerning Trump’s salary, even though in February, White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Politifact that Trump would give his salary “back to treasury or donating.”
In September 2015, while he was still on the campaign trail, Trump told a crowd of supports that it was “no big deal” for him to take a yearly salary of just $1.
“The first thing I’m going to do is tell you that if I’m elected president, I’m accepting no salary, okay?” Trump said. “That’s not a big deal for me.”
However, there is no word on that campaign promise now that he is actually in the White House.
Other celebrities and moguls who were independently wealthy have in the past taken salaries of just $1, including the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney, though there is no precedent of a president doing so.
Traditionally, the president accepts the White House salary, which is a symbolic reminder to the person in office that they work for the American people.