Vince McMahon Paid $5M To Donald Trump's Foundation: Report

STAMFORD, CT — Of the $19.6 million in unrecorded payments that former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon made in recent years, $5 million went to former President Donald Trump's charity in 2007 and 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal.

McMahon stepped down and ultimately retired last month as the head of WWE following the launch of an investigation by the company's board into allegations of sexual misconduct against McMahon and John Laurinaitis, another WWE executive.

The WSJ reported that McMahon paid $14.6 million to multiple women in order to silence allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity from 2006 to 2022.

WWE said in recent security filings that it discovered two additional payments totaling $5 million that McMahon made unrelated to misconduct allegations.

The WSJ, citing someone familiar with the investigation, said the money went to the now-dissolved Donald J. Trump Foundation around the same time Trump made appearances on WWE programming.

An attorney for WWE told the WSJ that McMahon personally paid Trump $1 million for an appearance fee, and made a $4 million contribution to the foundation.

The attorney said the payment should have been recorded as business expenses because McMahon was a principal shareholder and the payments benefited the Stamford-based company, although the attorney declined to say why, the WSJ said.

McMahon and Trump's relationship goes back decades. WrestleMania, WWE's marquee event, was held in back-to-back years at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1988 and 1989.

McMahon's wife, Linda McMahon, donated $6 million to support Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to the Washington Post. Linda McMahon later served in Trump's cabinet from 2017 to 2019 as the administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Earlier this week, WWE said that the investigation into McMahon was "substantially complete."

WWE noted that it expects to spend approximately $10 million during the remainder of the year related to the investigation, and costs could exceed that estimate.

McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon, was named interim co-CEO and chairwoman of WWE along with Nick Khan last month.

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