Trump's PAC asked fans to donate money while announcing his ex-wife Ivana's death
- Donald Trump's PAC sent an email noting the death of Ivana Trump that included a donate button.
- Trump's spokeswoman told Insider that a donate function was added automatically.
Former President Donald Trump's Save America PAC included a fundraising link in an email to supporters announcing the death of his first wife, Ivana Trump.
Donald Trump announced Ivana Trump's death in a statement posted on his Truth Social social media platform on Thursday.
A screenshot of that statement was also included in an email by Save America, which included a link encouraging supporters to "Donate to Save America."
The statement read: "I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there were many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City," Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life."
Liz Harrington, a Trump spokesperson, told Insider the "donate" function is automatically included in all of its emails.
"It is obviously a built-in function on all of our emails. Only ghouls would try to make something of it. Sick," she said in an email to Insider.
Previous emails from Save America including Trump statements have indeed included a "donate" function by default. Soliciting money in urgent and even desperate terms is a mainstay of political email communication.
Trump also operates a taxpayer-funded, post-presidential office through which he periodically makes public statements.
Trump issued an official statement from this office in December noting the death of former Republican Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican Party's 1996 presidential nominee. The Dole statement, like all from that office, did not solicit donations.
Ivana Trump was 73.
No official cause of death has been announced.
Sources told The New York Times and ABC News that New York police were investigating if she fell down the stairs in her Manhattan apartment.
An NYPD spokesman told Insider that the police were waiting on the medical examiner to confirm how she died.