Donald Trump Still Collects Six-Figure Pension from SAG-AFTRA: Report - Vanity Fair

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Donald Trump at Universal Studios Hollywood at Universal Studios in Los Angeles California United States.nbsp

The former president publicly quit the union two years ago, but still cashes a nice check.

April 15, 2023

There are many, many descriptions that come to mind when one says the name Donald Trump, but “union man” isn’t usually one of them. However, as per a story in The Hollywood Reporter, the former President of the United States (the one that was arrested not long ago, remains under investigation by several other prosecutors, and who also represents a full 50 percent of all presidential impeachments in U.S. history), is still drawing a sizable pension from the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

This is notable because on February 4, 2021, Trump publicly quit the union. The organization’s board members held an emergency session following the events of January 6, and voted to hold a disciplinary hearing which would determine if Trump should be removed from the guild. Before that could happen, though, the former host of The Apprentice, who had also made appearances in movies and television shows like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Zoolander, The Nanny, and Spin City, sent a letter of resignation.

And what a letter! SAG-AFTRA’s official site still hosts a copy of it, and it really is a quintessential sample of our 45th president’s rhetorical style. “I write to you today,” it opens, “regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!”

Before concluding, “I no longer wish to be associated with your union” and officially resigning, Trump accused the group of making a “blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record” and added that “[y]our organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me—besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas.”

THR’s article disproves the notion that the union did nothing for Trump's bottom line. According to financial disclosure forms he released late Friday, Trump took a pension from SAG valued at “between $100,000-$1 million in 2022” and a pension from AFTRA “valued at between $15,000-$50,000.” These pensions predate the merger of the two groups in 1992.

V.F. has reached out to a representative from SAG-AFTRA for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

The report also noted that he still receives money as a producer on the hit NBC show The Apprentice, which ran for 15 seasons, “to the tune of $100,000-$1 million.”

Trump has 31 acting credits on the IMDb. While some of these are very much on the fringe (the list includes narrating the audio to his 2007 tome Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, which boasted two tickets to The Learning Annex’s Wealth Expo on its cover), Trump did, one must confess, work with some impressive people over the years while making cameo appearances.

Here he is (with his middle wife, Marla Maples) opposite Oscar-winner Will Smith on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Here he is doing a little schtick with three-time Emmy-winner and two-time Oscar-nominee Judy Davis in four-time Oscar-winner Woody Allen’s film Celebrity.

And, weirdly, note that he had brief moments in two 1996 vehicles for Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg: the NBA romp Eddie and the business comedy The Associate, which also starred Dianne Wiest, Bebe Neuwirth, Austin Pendleton, Tim Daly, Eli Wallach (!), and Lainie Kazan (!!)

None of this, however, holds a candle to Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo.