The hits against Vince McMahon keep on coming.
According to a new Wall Street Journal report, McMahon made previously unrecorded contributions totalling $5 million to the now-dissolved Donald J. Trump Foundation in 2007 and 2009 — a period when Trump was appearing in WWE programming.
Specifically, McMahon allegedly made a $4 million payment to the charity in 2007 — when Trump appeared in a storyline culminating in a “Battle of the Billionaires” at WrestleMania 23 that saw the latter shave the former’s head.
Then, in 2009, McMahon allegedly gave $1 million, which just so happened to be when Trump appeared on “WWE Raw” in a storyline that had him take over WWE, only to sell it back to McMahon for double the price.
An attorney for the wrestling company said the payments should have been recorded as business expenses because McMahon was a principal shareholder and the company benefited from the payments — though the attorney would not say how the company benefited.
It’s all part of the $19.6 million in previously unreported expenses being uncovered by an internal board after McMahon retired as Chairman and CEO of WWE following allegations of hush money and sexual misconduct.
The controversy stands in stark contrast to the company’s recent successes.
WWE set a sales record by selling over 90,000 tickets to WrestleMania 39 in the first 24 hours of sale. In the same week, it reported record revenue for Q2 2022.
