--- title: Trump Demands CNN Donate GOP Debate Ad Revenue to Charity description: Donald Trump is demanding CNN donate the advertising revenue from the next GOP debate to a charity that benefits veterans canonical: https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-09T15:04:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:29.218Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Demands CNN Donate GOP Debate Proceeds to Charity og:description: He said the huge ad revenue is "due 100% to 'Donald J. Trump'" og:url: https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d47a3ca9050696/698862adf887dc5645e923fe/gettyimages-483209134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2273 og:image:height: 1279 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Demands CNN Donate GOP Debate Proceeds to Charity twitter:description: He said the huge ad revenue is "due 100% to 'Donald J. Trump'" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d47a3ca9050696/698862adf887dc5645e923fe/gettyimages-483209134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Wants CNN to Donate GOP Debate Proceeds to Veterans > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=cb366a03-7e6c-4f43-99a7-7a8d3f94fc09&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 9, 2015 3:04 PM UTC  Real estate tycoon Donald Trump speaks during the prime time Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (MANDEL NGAN--AFP/Getty Images) Real estate tycoon Donald Trump speaks during the prime time Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (MANDEL NGAN--AFP/Getty Images) MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 9, 2015 3:04 PM UTC Donald Trump is demanding CNN donate the advertising revenue from the next GOP debate to a charity that benefits veterans. The presidential hopeful wrote a letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker Tuesday in which he noted that ad rates for the GOP debate were being sold at a nearly 4,000% increase (from $5,000 to $200,000) and said that the “tremendous increase in viewer interest and advertising is due 100% to ‘Donald J. Trump.'” He reminded Zucker that the GOP debate on FOX had one of the largest viewerships in cable TV history, and anticipated that the CNN debate would bring in an even larger audience. And he asked Zucker to put all that money to good use. “You should view the second debate broadcast as a public service and not accept the massive profits that this airing will generate,” Trump wrote, according to a copy of the letter tweeted by [Bloomberg Politics.](https://twitter.com/MarkHalperin) “I believe that all profits from this broadcast should go to various veterans groups, a list of which I will send you in the near future. The veterans of our country, our finest people, have been treated horribly by our government and its ‘all talk and no action’ politicians.'” “In fact, some would say they are treated like third class citizens—even worse, in many cases, than illegal immigrants,” Trump wrote. Trump has devoted much of his campaign to railing against undocumented immigrants, repeatedly proposing to deport all undocumented immigrants and build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. [_Read now: TIME Cover: The Donald Has Landed_](http://time.com/trump/) The idea of leveraging his immense appeal with debate audiences into some kind of charity donation was first proposed when Trump spoke to TIME for the cover story in late August. At that time, he suggested that he might threaten not to show up unless the ad revenue was donated to charity. Here’s what he said [then:](http://time.com/trump/) --- > “” --- Zucker has not yet responded to Trump’s request. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/"},"headline":"Trump Wants CNN to Donate GOP Debate Proceeds to Veterans","datePublished":"2015-09-09T15:04:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:29.218Z","description":"He first suggested the idea to TIME","url":"https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Veterans","CNN","Charity","Immigration","Donald Trump","trump","GOP Debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d47a3ca9050696/698862adf887dc5645e923fe/gettyimages-483209134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6d47a3ca9050696/698862adf887dc5645e923fe/gettyimages-483209134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE","creditText":"MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4026445/trump-cnn-debate-donate/","name":"Trump Wants CNN to Donate GOP Debate Proceeds to Veterans"}}]}] ```