WASHINGTON _ Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called Monday for the Clinton Foundation to shut down immediately as questions about the philanthropy dog Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign.
"The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people," Trump said in a statement. "It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history."
Trump is the latest critic to say the foundation's plan to bar foreign and corporate donations if Clinton is elected president in November, which was announced Thursday, doesn't go far enough.
The Clinton campaign has responded by seeking to portray her as more committed to transparency _ and to charity _ than Trump is.
"The Clinton Foundation is a charity that helps people around the world. It's already announced major steps it'll take if Clinton wins," Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter. "Trump's businesses exist to enrich himself, involve a web of shady connections, & still he hasn't committed to divesting his holdings."
A representative for the foundation didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Leading Republicans aren't the only ones saying the foundation's plan falls short. The GOP has sought to characterize the charity as a pay-to-play scheme that allowed wealthy donors and foreign governments to influence Clinton when she was the top U.S. diplomat from 2009-2013.
"It'd be impossible to keep the foundation open without at least the appearance of a problem" if Clinton is elected, said former Gov. Ed Rendell, a Pennsylvania Democrat who supports Clinton, according to a New York Daily News story published Saturday.
The foundation should stop taking donations and, if Clinton is elected, it should shut down, the Boston Globe editorial board said Tuesday.
Trump's renewed focus on the foundation follows a week of sweeping changes to his campaign leadership as he seeks to gain ground on Clinton. She leads him in national polls by an average of 5.5 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
His new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, has had deep involvement in the effort to cast doubt on Hillary and Bill Clinton's finances. Bannon's group produced "Clinton Cash," a book scrutinizing their activities. Bannon and new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway are close to the conservative megadonor Robert Mercer, whose daughter Rebekah Mercer was co-executive producer of the movie version of the book.
Bloomberg Politics polling this month showed the foundation is an area of political vulnerability for Clinton. More than half of likely voters, 53 percent, said they were bothered a lot by the foundation's acceptance of money from foreign governments when Clinton was secretary of state. Another 21 percent said they were bothered a little by it.
Conway _ who encouraged viewers to "go see 'Clinton Cash'" during a CNBC interview Monday _ said the Trump campaign senses opportunity after two weeks of tumult.
"We'll look back and say, 'Why in the world didn't Hillary Clinton's campaign totally put us away in those two weeks?'" Conway said.
