Good help, as you know, is hard to find. What is worse than the absence of good help, is bad help that tries to help you out.

We’ve been following the saga of the Trump Foundation apparently being used as a piggy bank by Donald Trump (my latest installment) and now a Trump[ aide has come forward to ‘splain the matter and help out Trump:

A longtime aide to the Trump family defended Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s record of charitable giving on Wednesday, arguing some money given to Trump’s foundation by third parties “is his money.”

Lynne Patton, a senior assistant to three of Trump’s adult children and the vice president of son Eric Trump’s charitable foundation, told The Des Moines Register that some donations to the Donald J. Trump Foundation should be recognized as contributions from Trump himself because in some cases that money would have been paid to Trump directly.

“A lot of times Mr. Trump will give a speech somewhere or he’ll raise money in some way and he asks that that entity, instead of cutting a personal check to him, cut it to his charity,” Patton said. “That’s money that otherwise would’ve been in his personal account, right?”

“So when he cuts a check from his foundation for let’s say, St. Jude, it is his money,” she added. “No ifs, ands or ways about it.”

Ummm… NO! It is not his money. The donor got a tax write off, the Foundation got a donation. Trump got nothing tangible from his act.

But just think about it for a second. This mentality explains it all. If Trump did tell organizations to donate to his Foundation instead of paying him, then they get a tax deduction. And he feels free to use the Foundation to pay his personal expenses because as the lady said, “it is his money.”

As you might expect, the intrepid David Fahrenthold is on the case. He’s asking some big Trump Foundation donors if they gave money to the Foundation as compensation for some act by Trump.

.@VinceMcMahon you gave @realDonaldTrump's Fdn $5M. Was this, as @lynnepatton suggests, a gift in lieu of payment to Trump himself? https://t.co/jEs0DYnAag

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 21, 2016

.@NBCUniversal you gave @realdonaldtrump's Fdn $500K in 2012. Was his, as @LynnePatton suggests, a gift in lieu of payment to Trump himself? https://t.co/jEs0DYnAag

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 21, 2016

.@caaspeakers yr employee Richard Ebers has given @realdonaldtrump Fdn $1.8M. Were those gifts made in lieu of payments to Trump himself? https://t.co/jEs0DYnAag

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 21, 2016

We’ll keep you posted as we know more. And remember, Trump hires only the best people.