President Trump’s campaign and its affiliated committees spent more than $1.1 million at Trump’s own properties in the last weeks of the 2020 campaign – continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in which Trump has converted $6.7 million from his campaign donors into revenue for his businesses since taking office, new campaign-finance filings show.
The filings from Trump Victory – a fundraising committee managed by Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee – show $1.06 million in new spending at Trump properties in September, October and November. Trump’s own campaign, which files a separate spending report, reported spending another $66,000.
The filings don’t give much detail about the payments. Some appeared to be overnight stays at Trump hotels, costing a few hundred dollars each. There were several bills in excess of $100,000 for facility rental and catering – which likely included rentals of ballrooms for fundraisers or meetings at Trump properties. But the forms don’t say which Trump property was rented, or when.
Neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment Friday.
Trump visited his own properties nine times in the last weeks of his campaign: he held fundraisers at his golf clubs in Bedminster, N.J., and Doral, Fla., announced endorsements at his hotel in Las Vegas, and spent nights at the Las Vegas and Doral properties, as well as his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., between campaign stops.
Those trips were the final stops in a long series of trips that allowed Trump to convert campaign donations into revenue for his own company – which has struggled with empty rooms, lost customers and declining revenue at some properties since he took office. Trump’s first 2020 fundraiser, held back in June 2017, was at his hotel in Washington.
After that, Trump visited his own properties 37 more times for events tied to his own campaign, the RNC, or Super PACs that supported him, according to a Washington Post count. At these events, he could play a dual role: both candidate, and caterer, using his campaign funds to pay his business for his stay. Campaign-law experts say these payments likely do not violate the law, as long as Trump’s business doesn’t overcharge his campaign.
At the same time, Trump put none of his own money into his 2020 campaign, after investing millions in his successful run in 2016.
Since the election, Trump has raised more than $200 million – an astounding sum for a candidate who has already lost, fueled by Trump’s baseless claims that the election was stolen. A large amount of that money is likely to go to Trump’s new PAC, Save America. That arrangement, campaign-finance experts say, will allow Trump wide latitude to spend the PAC’s money after he leaves office – and could allow him to continue spending donors’ money at his own properties.
So far, Trump has not held any political events at his properties post-election. He has visited his club in northern Virginia nine times, but only to play golf.
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