The story is nothing new. For the past two years, the media has been writing about how former President Trump used campaign donations for his own personal and business uses.
A new report, published February 9, provides more details.
Reportedly, Donald Trump has put almost $1 million in donor contributions into his own pockets, investing the money in Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower, and other properties, since he left office in 2021.
The ex-president received cash donations through various political committees, including the Make America Great Again Super PAC and Save America Leadership PAC, starting from the day he left office in January 2021 until the end of 2022, according to an analysis of the new data done by the HuffPost.
Trump’s longtime NYC home and the headquarters for his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump Tower in Manhattan, has received most of the money from the donations made by committees, with a total of $412,958 received. The money was received in monthly installments of $37,542 over 11 months, and was described in the FEC filings as “rent.”
Even though the payments were classified as “rent,” it is noteworthy that the Make America Great Again Committee did not conduct any political work at Trump Tower.
The Trump International Hotel, another Trump property in NYC, across from Central Park, received $336,218 from campaign donations.
Trump’s residence, his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, received $137,272, including a $68,988 payment that it received after it became Trump’s locale for his 2024 presidential bid announcement on November 15, 2022.
After his 2020 presidential loss, Donald Trump made aggressive fundraising efforts to raise money for Save America, and said that he would use the money raised to pursue legal action for his loss to President Joe Biden and help Republican senators in Georgia win during their runoffs.
However, he did not spend a dime of Save America’s funds on what he promised to either.
Republicans criticized his actions, causing Trump to transfer Save America funds to a new Trump super PAC run by a former aide. It spent about $15 million boosting Republican candidates that Trump favored, but most lost.
The new super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., still has $54 million left over from the Save America campaign, and Trump wants to use the money to boost his 2024 campaign, which Save America is not allowed to do.
Although he gave a total of $760,000 to Republican House and Senate candidates, it is no match to the $27.3 million he reportedly paid his legal team, which is mostly handling his personal legal problems.
Despite his numerous legal battles and misappropriation of donor money, Trump still appears to be the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in many recent election polls.
