Fact Check: Ross Perot Did Not Donate to Trump’s Re-Election Campaign

Ross Perot, the populist Texas billionaire who passed away on Tuesday, did not donate to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign as major media outlets reported.

A representative for the Perot family, James Fuller, told Breitbart News the $5,600 donation made to Trump’s campaign on March 19 by a “Mr. Ross Perot” came from the billionaire’s son — Ross Perot, Jr. Fuller also confirmed the elder Perot made no donations to Trump in the second quarter of 2019, for which FEC filings have yet to be released.

A telling sign the donation may have come from the younger Perot was evident by the occupation — “chairman” of Hillwood, the family’s real estate development firm — listed on the FEC donor form. The younger Perot founded the company in 1988 and has served at its helm ever since. The older Perot, in fact, had been retired from the business world since the early 2000s.

Despite the information being readily public, several prominent media outlets confused the father and son. The Boston Globe appears to have been the first to make the mistake in an article published Tuesday comparing the late Texas billionaire’s political style to Trump.

“Politics is a process,” the Globe‘s James Pindell wrote. “There would be no LBJ without FDR. There wouldn’t be a Reagan revolution without Barry Goldwater. And it’s possible there wouldn’t be a Trump presidency without Perot.”

“Trump challenged the establishment from within the GOP… and Perot’s help will continue to boost Trump going forward,” Pindell added. “In March, as Perot battled leukemia, in the last documented political act of his life, he wrote two checks for the legal maximum amount to Trump’s campaign for president, including for the general election next year.”