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In total, the Trump Organization collected $188,000 in rent between January and June, all paid for through Trump’s campaign donations.
Trump Restaurants LLC also collected rent from the PAC even after the former president left office and during a time when tourists visiting Trump Tower were few due to the coronavirus pandemic totalling $15,000, according to federal filings.
Save America, the leadership PAC, paid the Trump Hotel Collection $79,000 in total after Mr Trump left office, according to the White House. Those expenses were largely for lodging and meals.
The Trump Organization did not comment on the self-dealing payments, but the former president did issue a statement boasting that his affiliated committees have approximately $100m of cash ready for use.
These fundraising numbers, coupled with tremendous support in so many other ways, show that President Trumps supporters want him to continue the fight, the statement said.
Companies That Made Big Donations To Trump Inauguration Are Benefiting From Presidency
WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps inaugural committee raised $106.7 million, making the event the most expensive inauguration in U.S. history. Most of this money came from wealthy donors and corporations that chipped in at least $250,000 many of which have benefited from policies enacted by the president during his first weeks in office.
One example is Boeing Company, which donated $1 million. The aerospace defense contractor is an ardent supporter of the Export-Import Bank, a government-backed lender that conservatives have targeted for elimination. Trump was skeptical of the bank during his presidential campaign, but did an about-face on April 12 when he announced plans to reinvigorate it. His decision came one day after an in-person meeting with Boeing CEO Jim McNerney.
GEO Group, the nations second-largest private prison company, donated $250,000 to Trumps inaugural committee. It had previously donated $225,000 to super PACs supporting his presidential campaign. Corrections Corporation of America in Tennessee, another private prison company, also gave $250,000 to the inaugural committee. Private prison companies have benefited significantly from Trumps policies, perhaps more than any other private-sector industry. Under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Department of Justice ended the Obama administrations policy of phasing out the use of private prisons for federal incarceration.
Trump Hoards His War Chest And Dem Donors Unleash Millions: 5 Takeaways From The Latest Campaign Money Disclosures
Former President Donald Trump’s PAC now has over $110 million in the bank.
03/21/2022 04:33 PM EDT
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Millions of dollars poured into super PACs and party committees in February. But none of them have as much money as the group controlled by former President Donald Trump.
Trumps operation has built a mountain of cash typically only seen at the national party groups, but he continues to largely keep the money to himself. Meanwhile, allies of the former president are cementing themselves as part of a new power base in the Republican Party, and Democrats are pouring money into their efforts to retain control of Congress.
POLITICO pored over the monthly Federal Election Commission filings for super PACs and party committees, with more outside groups and candidates set to report their first fundraising numbers of the year next month. Here are five takeaways from the latest campaign money developments:
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Receiving Donation From Ukrainian Oligarch During Campaign For President
In 2015 Ukrainian Victor Pinchuk made a $150,000 donation to the Trump Foundation in return for Trump’s appearance by video conference link at the Yalta European Strategy Conference. The appearance was broadcast on a large screen and lasted only twenty minutes, including delays caused by translation and by technical difficulties. Pinchuk is the son-in-law of former Ukrainian president Lionid Kuchma. In 2018 The New York Times reported that the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating the donation as a possible illegal in-kind campaign contribution from a foreign national intended to curry favor with then-candidate Trump.
Trump Took Millions In Campaign Donations And Gave Them To His Businesses
Donald Trumps reelection campaign, which never received a cent from the former president, moved an estimated $2.8 million of donor money into the Trump Organizationincluding at least $81,000 since Trump lost the election.
In addition, one of the campaigns joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trumps business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020at least $331,000 of which came after the election.
The money covered the cost of rent, airfare, lodging and other expenses.
Trumps actions demonstrate that for him the presidency was always a for-profit venture. Donald Trump has zero interest in the job of being president. He spent much of his energy during his time in office trying to figure out ways to get taxpayer money into his businesses.
The difference between the nation having a grifter and a commander in chief has been on display in the few weeks that Joe Biden has been in office. By the end of February, Joe Biden will have legislatively achieved more help for the American people than Donald Trump did in four years.
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Forbes Found 133 Billionaires Or Spouses Of Billionaires Who Donated To Trumps Campaign Ahead Of The 2020 Election They Built Their Fortunes In 17 Industries
Some clearly benefited from having a friend in the White House. Miriam Adelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, got clearance for his Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as a seat on the board of trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Harold Hamm, the oil baron, became an informal advisor. Linda McMahon, who is married to WWE Chief Executive Vince McMahon, accepted a role as head of the Small Business Administration, before moving on to chair a pro-Trump super-PAC named America First Action.
On average, the donors contributed about $285,000 to the Trump campaign and its joint-fundraising committees, which split their hauls with the Republican Party. About 9% of Trumps billionaire donors, however, gave less than $5,000. At least 19 also donated to pro-Trump super-PACs. Unlike other types of political committees, super-PACs can accept unlimited amounts of money. The Adelsons, for instance, gave $90 million to a pro-Trump super-PAC called Preserve America. Marvel Entertainment billionaire Isaac Perlmutter and his wife, Laura, gave $21 million to America First. Kelcy Warren donated $10 million to the same group.
The Expenses Trump Can’t Pay With Save America Funds
Although the Trump campaign is still explicitly soliciting for “Election Defense Funds,” money donated to his Save America PAC cannot be used to support Mr. Trump’s own campaign or the cost of litigation arising from his campaign, Brendan Fischer, Federal Reform Program director at the Campaign Legal Center, told CBS News.
And Fischer pointed out on that none of the funds raised by Save America paid for Mr. Trump’s legal or recount expenses. Instead, much of the money initially raised was used to pay fundraising expenses to WinRed, the conservative fundraising platform used by the RNC.
Mr. Trump and Republicans appear to be paying their post-election legal bills, however they’re just using a separate recount account and the RNC’s legal account.
Save America also cannot be used to retire Mr. Trump’s campaign debt. Going into November, he seemed to be running low on cash, with just $60 million in cash on hand and $160 million owed for TV ads alone.
But Fischer noted that Mr. Trump has mostly paid off his campaign debt with money raised just after the election from people who may have believed they were giving to his “official election defense fund.”
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Trump Campaign Rnc Refund Donors Another $128 Million In : Nyt
Former President Trumps campaign and the Republican Party returned around $12.8 million to donors in the first six months of 2021, The New York Time reported.
It was previously reported in April that Trumps reelection campaign had refunded around $122 million to donors in 2020. Recently released federal records have revealed that the Trump campaign has so far returned $135 million to campaign donors.
Shortly before Election Day last year, Trumps campaign made recurring payments the default option on its donation website, meaning that people had to uncheck the option to avoid being charged weekly.
The Times found that the campaign had attempted to obscure this detail by placing it in the fine print beneath multiple lines of bolded and capitalized text
The campaign also added a second pre-checked box that doubled a donors donation along with new lines of text that distracted readers from what they were agreeing to.
Trumps reelection campaign reportedly withdrew more than $3,000 in less than a month from one donor who was in hospice care and had donated $500 in September.
The Federal Election Commission unanimously voted in May to recommend that Congress ban campaigns from pre-checking boxes as the Trump campaign did. The Times noted that other GOP lawmakers, including former Republican Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, also used pre-checked boxes in their respective reelection campaigns.
Trump’s Save America Pac Is Raking In Donations What Can That Money Be Spent On
The Trump campaign’s fundraising shows no signs of abating, though Election Day was over a month ago. Since November 3, the campaign, Republican National Committee, Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again joint committees, and President Trump’s new political action committee, Save America, have collected $207.5 million in donations, his campaign announced Thursday.
“These tremendous fundraising numbers show President Trump remains the leader and source of energy for the Republican Party, and that his supporters are dedicated to fighting for the rightful, legal outcome of the 2020 general election,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement.
As the president’s election challenges continue with lawsuits and recounts in battleground states without a change in the voting results in any state so far his campaign website is begging supporters to give to his “election defense fund” with a meaningless pitch: “Please contribute ANY AMOUNT in the NEXT HOUR and you can increase your impact by 1000%!”
“President Trump needs YOU to step up to make sure we have the resources to protect the integrity of the Election,” the website implored on Friday.
Despite the rhetoric on the website and Stepien’s remarks about supporting the “rightful, legal outcome” of the election, the fine print states that the vast majority of donations are not going toward funding Mr. Trump’s litigation to overturn the election, but rather, to his new leadership PAC, Save America.
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Trump Hoards A Growing War Chest
Trumps Save America PAC crossed $110 million in the bank at the end of February, after taking in $3.5 million during the month and spending just $1.2 million.
That is more money than both national political parties the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have combined in their main bank account. The DNC reported $52.9 million in its coffers at the end of the month, while its Republican counterpart had $45.5 million in its bank account.
Trump has done little to spend his largesse around the party. The committee did not report any new donations or independent expenditures backing Trump-endorsed candidates.
The filings did, however, reveal substantial payments to two law firms representing high-profile witnesses sought by the Jan. 6 select committee. One of them, Brand Woodward the firm of former House counsel Stan Brand represents longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino, who still draws a check from the leadership PAC. Brands counterpart, Stanley Woodward, represents several of the defendants charged with breaching the Capitol.
Daniel Bean, an attorney with the other firm, Abel Bean, represents Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich.
Using Trump Foundation Money To Settle Trump Organization Legal Disputes
Trump may have used foundation money to settle his personal or business legal disputes on at least two occasions.
In 2007, Trump used Trump Foundation funds to settle a 2006 legal dispute between the Town of Palm Beach, Florida, and Trump’s country club. The town said the club’s flagpole violated town height limit rules and levied a daily accruing fine against the club. The club’s flagpole was 80 feet tall, 38 feet above limits imposed by the town. Palm Beach began fining Trump $1,250 per day for the violation. Trump countersued Palm Beach for $25 million on US constitutional grounds for restricting his 1st amendment rights of free speech and his 14th amendment rights of equal protection. The suit alleged that at least twenty other properties had violated the height restrictions but were not similarly fined. It also alleged that a shorter flagpole “would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump’s … patriotism.” Trump eventually reached a legal settlement with Palm Beach after, according to the Sun Sentinel, “secret, court-ordered negotiations.” Settlement documents show that Trump, in return for discharging the club’s obligations to Palm Beach, had agreed to personally donate $100,000 to Fischer House, a charity benefitting veterans and military families. However, Trump then made the grant using foundation money, not his own.
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Money Raised For Trump’s Election Fights Would Help Cover Campaign Debt
Washington With President Trump refusing to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and continuing to falsely declare himself as the winner of the White House, the president and his campaign are soliciting donations from supporters for an “election defense fund” designed to “defend the integrity” of the election.
But the fine print shows that the full amount contributed to help the Trump campaign does not go toward efforts to ensure all votes are legally counted. Instead, at least half of each donation will go to paying off the campaign’s debts, donation pages state.
For each contribution made to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee, 60% will be deposited into the campaign’s general election account for retirement of debt, or into the campaign’s Recount Account if that debt has been paid off. The remaining 40% will go to the Republican National Committee’s Operating account. Any additional money would be deposited in the party’s Legal Proceedings Account or Headquarters account.
For donations to the Trump campaign specifically, 50% of each will go toward paying off its debt and the remaining 50% will be deposited into its Recount account.
States have varying dates for certifying the results of their elections, and is the deadline for determining their presidential electors and resolving any election disputes.
Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.
Trump Insists His Campaigns Multimillion
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Over the weekend, The New York Timesexposed a Trump campaign scam so simple and perfectly Trumpian that its actually a wonder the ex-president hasnt had the scheme trademarked taken to Fox News to brag about what a genius he is for so thoroughly swindling his base. As Shane Goldmacher reports, Donald Trumps campaign ripped off supporters for tens of millions of dollars by making it so that when they donated money, the default option authorized the campaign to transfer the pledged amount from peoples bank accounts not once but every single week. Later, the campaign introduced a second prechecked box that doubled a persons contribution and was thus known internally as a money bomb. In order for people to have noticed this, they would have had to wade through lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.
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Oh, and the scheme didnt stop after Trump lost the election. According to the Times, his campaign continued the weekly withdrawals through prechecked boxes all the way through December 14 as he raised tens of millions of dollars for his new political action committee, Save America.
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