Former President Donald Trump spent $375,000 raised from his followers for rent at his financially troubled Manhattan skyscraper last year ― even though his political committees have no presence in the building.
“It’s a huge scam,” said one former aide with direct knowledge of Trump’s political spending. “I can’t believe his base lets him get away with it.”
WaPo
I can.
A HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows that Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC spent $37,541.67 in each of 10 months last year renting office space at Trump Tower, the former president’s 57-story mixed-use building near Central Park.
[...]
In all those months, there was at most one person who periodically visited the 7,000-square-foot office in Trump Tower, the former aide said. But Trump insisted on having the campaign continue renting there ― as it had during the 2016 election ― because the building was having trouble finding tenants, he said.
[...]
After the 2020 election, the Trump presidential campaign committee was reformulated as the Make America Great Again PAC and continued leasing the space. Only now it is not used at all, except to store campaign memorabilia, the former aide said. “No one works at that office,” he said. “It sits there locked up.”
Pretty stiff rent for a storage unit.
The $375,417 Trump spent for the unused office space is more than the $350,500 that his Save America committee donated last year to Republican candidates running for office, which is ostensibly Trump’s purpose for raising money for his committees.
Trump used similar tactics when he originally created the Save America “leadership” PAC following his election loss in November 2020, claiming in repeated emails and text messages to tens of millions of his supporters that the money would be used to help Republicans win key U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia to maintain control of that chamber. But even though he raised $76 million in those weeks before the Jan. 5, 2021, runoff, Trump spent none of it helping the GOP candidates.
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Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that although Trump is still using his position to funnel donors’ money to himself, it does not appear to be illegal. “There’s no law that says you can’t use this as a scam to enrich yourself. He’s allowed to do this. It’s sleazy, but it’s legal.”
So maybe it shouldn't be.
Trump’s total donations to candidates is also dwarfed by the amount of money his properties have taken in from GOP candidates and committees staging events at and otherwise patronizing his various properties. Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s tennis and croquet social club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he lives and has a taxpayer-supported post-presidential office, alone received $427,196 in payments last year, just from federal candidates and committees.
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His hotels and golf courses in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., took in an additional $153,243.
Trump ended 2021 with $105 million in his Save America committee, which, unlike a campaign committee with strict spending rules, can be used for virtually anything he wants, including paying his personal expenses or even providing himself a hefty salary.
“It’s all a slush fund,” the former aide said.
Grifters will grift.
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