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Trump raises rent on own Campaign HQ from $35,000 to 170,000 using Campaign Donations

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D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-campaign-rent_us_57bba424e4b03d51368a82b9


WASHINGTON ― After bragging for a year about how cheaply he was running his campaign, Donald Trump is spending more freely now that other people are contributing ― particularly when the beneficiary is himself.

Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March.

The Trump campaign paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,458 in March ― the same amount it had been paying since last summer ― and had 197 paid employees and consultants. In July, it paid 172 employees and consultants.

“If I was a donor, I’d want answers,” said a prominent Republican National Committee member who supports Trump, asking for anonymity to speak freely. “If they don’t have any more staff, and they’re paying five times more? That’s the kind of stuff I’d read and try to make an (attack) ad out of it.”

In addition to the rent for Trump Tower space in Manhattan, Trump has paid his eponymous golf courses and restaurants more than $260,000 since his campaign and the RNC struck a joint fundraising deal in mid-May, after he essentially locked up the GOP nomination. On May 18, the day the fundraising deal was announced, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach was paid $29,715; Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, was paid $35,845; and Trump Restaurants LLC was paid $125,080, according to FEC records. Such large payments were much rarer when Trump was self-funding.

It’s unclear from the campaign filings the purpose of the golf course and restaurant payments, although both of the Florida golf courses hosted Trump campaign news conferences in March. Also unclear from the filings is whether Trump is using more space in Trump Tower than he was in the spring and, if he is, why, given that his staffing is lower.

The Trump campaign did not respond to The Huffington Post’s queries.

The FEC filings show that Trump began increasing the rent at Trump Tower starting with the May 31 payment of $72,800. The Trump campaign paid $110,684 in rent on June 9, and $169,758 on July 10.

The campaign’s number of paid employees and consultants went from 166 in May, to 139 in June, to 172 in July. How many of those actually worked in Trump Tower cannot be determined from the FEC filings, although typically only a small fraction of a presidential campaign’s staff works in the headquarters building. Last autumn, only about a dozen of the campaign’s several dozen paid employees worked in Manhattan.

Trump continues to fly to campaign events on his personal Boeing 757 airliner, even though the aging jet burns some $10,000 in fuel every hour. That has made air travel one of the biggest expense categories for his campaign. In July alone, $495,000 went to Trump’s company that owns the plane.

Prior to May, three-quarters of the $59 million spent by Trump’s campaign had come out of his own pocket ― meaning that whatever Trump charged his campaign for rent was largely coming from Trump himself.

That situation is now entirely reversed. Trump’s money makes up a tiny percentage of his campaign’s spending. The bulk now comes from outside donors, both small-dollar givers and those writing maximum-limit checks of $2,700.

“Nobody cares when you’re spending your own money, but when you’re spending the donor’s $27, that could cause problems,” the RNC member said, adding that small donors especially may not be sympathetic to Trump’s extravagance. “Most campaigns run on a much tighter budget.”

For many months, Trump’s campaign prided itself on its low-rent operation. It invited reporters in to tour its headquarters on the fifth floor of Trump Tower that had once been used as production offices for “The Apprentice” TV show, which starred Trump. Photos and video from those tours show work space with unfinished ceilings, makeshift drywall partitions, and only a few campaign workers.

Commercial real estate is available in the midtown Manhattan neighborhood in the range of $70 per square foot annually, although Trump has charged more than that. Trump Tower rented 9,000 feet of office space in December at $120 per square foot, but has been unable to rent a 15,000 square-foot office that includes six terraces overlooking Fifth Avenue, even at a discounted rent of $90 per square foot.

Democrat Hillary Clinton has been leasing two entire floors in a Brooklyn office building totaling 80,000 square feet since the start of her campaign. The rent for that space has been about $212,000 per month.
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M

Makki

Member
I sometimes believe the whole Trump Presidency wasn't for the spotlight, but just for this very chance to inject money into his debt ridden enterprises through campaign money.... Sad!
 
W

watershed

Banned
Of course Trump would do this. He's getting rich by losing. He saw how so many other failed republican presidential candidates were able to get rich from their bids and now he's taking it to the next level to help dig himself out of debt.
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
what's crazy is this one person at work who was supporting Trump today finally said they would vote for Hillary... and i quote ... "sadly, the lesser of two evils" *shrug*
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
This campaign is literally one step away from being the world's greatest money laundering scheme. Seriously, if Trump was funneling illegal gains through his campaign in this way he would be a visionary in crime.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Link said:
Not like it's hard to do. You ever see the shit they peddle on conservative websites/radio?
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I dunno. I always thought it was nice of all these gold companies willing to provide gold at reasonable rates considering the imminent apocalypse.
 
S

Saganator

Member
B-Dubs said:
This campaign is literally one step away from being the world's greatest money laundering scheme. Seriously, if Trump was funneling illegal gains through his campaign in this way he would be a visionary in crime.
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Nah. Clinton Foundation bro


...seriously joking. Please don't quote bomb me.

Gutek said:
HOW DOES SHIT LIKE THAT NOT IMMEDIATELY SINK HIM? HOW??? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING??
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For this, he'll get praise for being a good business man! Being a good landlord that he is, he noticed his tenant came into some new money and charged accordingly.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
Gutek said:
HOW DOES SHIT LIKE THAT NOT IMMEDIATELY SINK HIM? HOW??? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING??
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You realize that Trump has sunk, right? His numbers are some of the worst in history and haven't seen a significant increase in over a month. We've known Trump isn't unstoppable for awhile now
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Money well spent.

Wait haha my hand slipped.

Money spent.

Stinkles said:
I'm a billionaire
Click to expand...
My fortune's so huge. Absolutely stellar heft and girth. Tell anyone and they won't believe you. I'm packing the most unbelievable fortune you've ever seen.

Oh god I'm spending so hard.
 
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