Moved $2.7 million of campaign money into his business before election
Dan Alexander
Forbes Staff
... On the day of his inauguration, Trump filed paperwork for his reelection, allowing himself to continue raising money from supporters while he served. As other people filled his campaign coffers, Trump sat back and watched, never donating to the reelection effort. Instead, he did the opposite, taking money out of his campaign by charging for things like rent, food, lodging and legal expenses. In doing so, the president managed to shift $2.7 million from his supporters to his businesses between his first day in office in 2017 and Election Day in 2020, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.
The $2.7 million represents a tiny sliver of the $785 million that the Trump campaign took in from January 2017 to November 2020. It remains a mystery why Trump, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion, didn’t just cover the costs by making a donation.
The bulk of the money flowed through Trump Tower. About a month after Trump became president, his campaign paid $159,000 to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the entity through which he retained his 100% stake in Trump Tower. The building had served as headquarters during the 2016 campaign, and even though the Trump team opened another headquarters in the D.C. area, the campaign continued to spend about $40,000 a month on the Trump Tower space through the 2020 election. The rent payments ultimately added up to $1.6 million.
Other entities also collected large sums. In May 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel, authorizing him to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. The timing could be a coincidence, but the next month, the Trump campaign paid $90,000 for “legal consulting” to a company called the Trump Corp., also owned by the president. Trump’s financial disclosure reports describe that entity as a “management company.” It is unclear why a management company would be providing legal advice. Regardless, the Trump Corp. continued charging for legal work throughout the campaign and eventually expanded its offerings to include IT services. By Election Day, it had taken in $293,000 from the Trump campaign, according to the analysis of filings ...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/12/10/trump-moved-27-million-of-campaign-donor-money-into-his-business-before-election-day/?sh=1d2b37bced52
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