Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has paid his family'sbusinesses more than $8.2 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance filings, which reveals an integrated business and political operation without precedent in national politics.
The GOP presidential nominee’s campaign has paid his various businesses for services including rent for his campaign offices ($1.3 million), food and facilitiesfor events and meetings ($544,000) and payroll for Trump corporate staffers ($333,000) who helped with everything from his traveling security to his wife’s convention speech.
In all, the Trump campaign’s payments to Trump-owned businesses account for about 7 percent of its $119 million spending total, the analysis found. That’s an unprecedented amount of self-dealing in federal politics. Even the wealthiest of candidates have refrained from tapping their businesses’ resources to such an extensive degree, either because their businesses are structured in a manner that doesn’t legally allow them to do it with flexibility, or because they’re leery of the allegations of pocket-padding that inevitably arise when politicians use their campaigns or committees to pay their businesses or families.
Trump’s tangle of businesses has raised concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest should he win the presidency, while the Trump-branded campaign has drawn mockery and allegations of pocket-padding from Trump’s critics.
“Most wealthy candidates separate their businesses from their campaign organizations, and that’s partly because their companies are either publicly owned or owned by multiple people,” said GOP election lawyer Jason Torchinsky. He represented Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign, which paid the former New York mayor’s companies for office space, security and legal consulting, but finished the campaign owing money to them.
“It’s unique to have somebody who is independently wealthy and is able to so thoroughly integrate a privately held company into their campaign,” Torchinsky said of Trump.
The GOP presidential nominee’s campaign has paid his various businesses for services including rent for his campaign offices ($1.3 million), food and facilitiesfor events and meetings ($544,000) and payroll for Trump corporate staffers ($333,000) who helped with everything from his traveling security to his wife’s convention speech.
In all, the Trump campaign’s payments to Trump-owned businesses account for about 7 percent of its $119 million spending total, the analysis found. That’s an unprecedented amount of self-dealing in federal politics. Even the wealthiest of candidates have refrained from tapping their businesses’ resources to such an extensive degree, either because their businesses are structured in a manner that doesn’t legally allow them to do it with flexibility, or because they’re leery of the allegations of pocket-padding that inevitably arise when politicians use their campaigns or committees to pay their businesses or families.
Trump’s tangle of businesses has raised concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest should he win the presidency, while the Trump-branded campaign has drawn mockery and allegations of pocket-padding from Trump’s critics.
“Most wealthy candidates separate their businesses from their campaign organizations, and that’s partly because their companies are either publicly owned or owned by multiple people,” said GOP election lawyer Jason Torchinsky. He represented Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign, which paid the former New York mayor’s companies for office space, security and legal consulting, but finished the campaign owing money to them.
“It’s unique to have somebody who is independently wealthy and is able to so thoroughly integrate a privately held company into their campaign,” Torchinsky said of Trump.
