A Buddhist artist from China + a $20,000 @KFC Zinger carved out a meteorite + $237,000 in donations to Trump and the GOP = one of the weirdest stories about a top GOP donor I’ve ever worked on.
New from @davidcorndc @russchoma and me: motherjones.com/politics/2019/…
New from @davidcorndc @russchoma and me: motherjones.com/politics/2019/…
Cheng Gao, who started making large contributions to Trump and the RNC in the final weeks of the ’16 election, has puzzled campaign finance-watchers for a while. On FEC disclosure forms he is listed as a “Buddhist artist” affiliated with a company called “Dharma Joy” 
A heavily tattooed vegan aesthete who revers the Dalai Lama and recoils at hurting insects, he doesn’t exactly fit the profile of your typical Trump donor
Gao, who moved with his family to New York from Beijing in 2015, attended the exclusive cabinet dinner at Donald Trump’s inauguration (packages that included tickets to this event started at $100K). And he has visited the White House and Mar-a-Lago
He recently posted a photo (and video) to his Instagram page (made private after we contacted him) that gave the impression that he had ridden on a Trump Organization helicopter
And…he also moved into a $3.75 million apartment in Trump Tower
Why did Gao—a recent immigrant to the US who follows the teachings of the Dalai Lama—go all in for Trump? A friend suggested that it largely came down to his anti-abortion beliefs.
This person also said he may have had business reasons
We repeatedly reached out to Gao and his wife, Qingqing Qiu, with our questions, including about Gao’s immigration status. (Green-card holders can donate; foreign nationals can’t.) They never responded. But this happened:
And, you may be asking, what about this fabled $20,000 @KFC Zinger made from a meteorite? In 2017, Qiu gave this as a gift to her husband, a fan of this KFC sandwich before going vegan. Behold
We had fun reporting this story, so I hope you enjoy reading it.
Finally, a special thank you to @phdnyny and @InformantGuard. They have been researching Gao ever since his name appeared on a list of inaugural donors and @phdnyny alerted me to Gao. Thank you 🙏 and please keep the tips coming.
We just received this from an RNC official, responding to an earlier inquiry about Gao. "In order for anyone to donate to Trump Victory or the RNC, he or she must provide information showing they are eligible to contribute, as Mr. Gao did."
