Wait a second...Trump paid himself $400,000 to RENT HIS OWN HOUSE for a press conference?

[Miles Archer]

Donald Trump’s Campaign Paid Trump Companies More Than $1 Million In May
The campaign funded Trump’s use of his jets and his Florida mansion, Mar-A-Lago.
06/21/2016 01:15 am ET | Updated 8 hours ago

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-campaign-payments_us_5768a69ee4b0853f8bf1fe2d



Trump hosted a press conference on March 15 at his Mar-A-Lago mansion. His campaign later paid the house and club more than $400,000 in rental and catering fees.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign paid more than $1 million last month to companies controlled by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, according to reports the Trump campaign filed late Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

The figure represents payments for facilities rental, catering, monthly rents and utilities at more than a half-dozen Trump-owned companies and properties. It includes nearly $350,000 that the Trump campaign paid a Trump-owned company, TAG Air, for the use of Trump’s private jets and helicopters.

The most striking expenditure in the new filings was $423,372, paid by the Trump campaign for rentals and catering at Trump’s 126-room Palm Beach, Florida, mansion, Mar-A-Lago, which Trump operates as a private club.

***

Other Trump-owned recipients of campaign funds include Trump Restaurants, which raked in $125,080 in rent and utilities; Trump Tower Commercial, which charged $72,800 in rent and utilities in the building that houses Trump’s campaign headquarters; the Trump National Golf Club, in Jupiter, Florida, which collected $35,845 for facilities rental and catering; and the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, which billed the campaign for $29,715, for facilities rentals and catering.

[Vinca]

1. They don't call him "Don the Con" for nothing.

[snooper2]

44. check the editors note at the bottom of the article

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

[reflection]

48. That's been at the bottom of all their Trump coverage for awhile

the other day I was cruising around at lunch and thought I'd see what Limbaugh was yakking about. He was fuming about that squib appearing on all of HuffPo's stuff.

[trumad]

2. Grifters will grift

[yardwork]

3. Is it too much to hope that he might eventually go to jail for this kind of thing?

[cali]

4. I think so. As I understand it, he can't use his properties without

payment.

[yardwork]

5. It would seem that there must be campaign financing violations going on.

[Miles Archer]

8. It becomes more of an ethics issue and less of a strict "legality," I would think

I'm sure that no one could force him to have a press conference in a Ramada Inn, and if you look at the actual numbers he charged, he can probably prove that it's the same amount he would charge anyone to use his facilities. It then comes down to the ethics of spending that much, including how much of that goes back into his own pockets as pure profits, which he can probably justify on a "legal" basis, but it's a long stretch for him to suggest that this is an "ethical" use of campaign funds, whether he is "self-funding" himself in any degree, or not.

[underpants]

10. Right. These are payments between companies

His campaign pays the resort. It's still stinks to high heaven.

[cali]

12. Yeah, it sure does stink to high heaven.

[Miles Archer]

6. When you read his history of "creative bookkeeping," it's pretty staggering

I posted something here a few weeks ago about his Atlantic City escapades. Supposedly his father showed up at the casino and purchased $2.5 million in chips, hoping to fly under the radar, but it got flagged as an inappropriate donation and Trump got his wrists slapped for it. These stories are legion, and what we've seen probably only represents the tip of the iceberg.

[yardwork]

7. Narcissists think that rules and laws are for suckers.

Trump may have waded into something with real consequences. It's fairly easy to get away with real estate scams, etc. Campaign finance law is a different ballgame.

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Not a chance in hell

Campaign finance law is an utter failure.

[Yonnie3]

9. I am sure he got a Yuge Deal from the t'Rump companies. After all

who better to negotiate with him than himself.

A $$ hole t'Rump. If money gets near him it will be absorbed.

[6chars]

13. His implosion may be the all time standard

even aside from ideology, I would not want to be a Republican now.

[L. Coyote]

14. Toast.

It is now completely over for Donald.

[IronLionZion]

15. I hope people stop donating to his campaign

since he seems to find ways to funnel it into his own pockets like an asshole. Getting richer by running for president. Everyone knows he's going to lose.

[Miles Archer]

17. The "contested convention" debate has taken on a new tone

First, it was all about the red tape, legalities, and party votes required to change the rules to oust him with a spoiler. That and the fact that they would alienate his supporters, violate the will of the people, and so forth.

Now, I think they would be willing to lose by throwing in Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush so that they lost without Trump's name on the party. He's just digging the hole deeper on a daily basis.

[egold2604]

16. Sarah Palin should be his running mate. Both Grifters. A match made in Republican heaven

[Miles Archer]

20. I actually believed, for a while, he'd do that, just to prove he could get away with it.

Now, his only hope would be to put someone on the ticket like the three I named (Bush, Romney, or Ryan). His ego wouldn't allow it, nor would theirs.

[egold2604]

22. Sarah Sarah Sarah

For a while I thought that Trump would have Sarah as his running mate and then resign after he was elected president saying you all deserve her

[3catwoman3]

36. Perish...

..the thought!

[cynzke]

18. ROUND AND ROUND THE MONEY GOES.....

Where it stops, NOBODY knows! EXCEPT....NOW it appears to be going into Trump's Pocket.

[redstatebluegirl]

19. The rich all have "creative bookkeeping methods" to keep their taxes at bay.

He is a master at that or he would have released his tax returns by now. I think his supporters would be shocked at the low rate of taxes he pays, if any.

[Else You Are Mad]

23. It also helps...

When the rich can lobby and pay for members of Congress to ensure that there are enough loopholes to help keep them as rich as possible.

[2cannan]

24. There are already reports that he paid NO taxes in a couple of years...

Donald Trump Twice Paid No Federal Taxes, Government Report Shows
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-paid-federal-taxes-government-report-shows/story?id=39259669

[NoMoreRepugs]

21. Why would anyone here think this means ANYTHING to his followers?

Heck, I bet they applaud him for gaming the system. Also, how is something (Mar-A-Lago) both a mansion and private club at the same time??

[Miles Archer]

31. It's a "clansion." 100% on the up-and-up.

I'm shocked that you are not familiar with this well-known real estate term.

[NoMoreRepugs]

35. iced tea bubbles out the nose on that one

[BumRushDaShow]

45. I would call it a "Klansion"

[Sanity Claws]

42. Probably means something to funders

But not to followers. They are too dumb to realize he's just scamming them.

[jmowreader]

50. Because it's unbelievably YOOGE!

Here's the club's website: http://www.maralagoclub.com

After he bought it he turned it into a luxury hotel. He set aside a suite of rooms for his own use, and rents out the rest as a very exclusive retreat.

BTW Trump paying his own companies for things is legal, strange as that sounds. Big companies move money around internally. The company I work for has hotels, restaurants, a mall, a lot of newspapers, a boat manufacturing plant...When the Newspaper Division brings its publishers in from around the country for the annual meeting and houses them in our Hospitality division's biggest hotel, each paper has to pay the hotel. Trump is running his company the same way - his bizarre presidential campaign is a division of the Trump Organization. Trump is guilty of a lot of fiscal atrocities, but this isn't one of them.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Con Don. . . nt

[packman]

26. You know - somehow you gotta admire his moxie

Apparently nothing is beyond this guy's ego and greed. Laughable shit.

What is that old tale about grabbing a tiger by the tail. Seems the RNC has a tiger that it doesn't know what to do with.

[lpbk2713]

27. With every passing day we see more of what his campaign is all about.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.



He's nothing more than a low grade con man who has had an extraordinary run of luck.

[Agnosticsherbet]

28. More and more this resembles a scheme to steal millions in money donated to his campaign

and line his pockets.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. His supporters would claim it's all his own money anyway....

They seem to think he's not accepting donations because he doesn't need them because he's rich.

They believe he can't be bought either. I know one that claimed he didn't have a super-pac until I mentioned the "Make America Great Again PAC".

The rest of us see this for what it is: Money laundering.

[dawnie51]

30. As with all the scams and cons of this guy...

the only person to walk with full pockets is Trump. Everyone else loses their asses, but he comes out with the bucks. This faux campaign is the same. When the books are written about this, I have no doubt it will be one of the biggest cons ever. And I doubt there is any legal penalty for any of it

[struggle4progress]

32. We're in the Money

[yellowcanine]

33. Trump appears to be mixing campaign and personal finances.

If he is taking money from donors and using it for personal expenses that money is income.
I suspect that the IRS is going to be taking a long look at Trump's campaign finances.

[Gothmog]

34. Trump is a con man

[tblue37]

37. I just hope the total crash and burn doesn't happen too soon. I would hate for the GOP

to disengage from Trump before he has sufficiently damaged their brand and the GOP down ticket candidates.

[keithbvadu2]

38. He should pay for it with free golf games just like the value he claims for charity.

[seanbnewyork4]

39. Wow, really? That's just pathetic

Don Chump seems to be running out of money for his futile campaign. Oh well, it was only a matter of time.

[MariaThinks]

40. Crooked trump

[Adrahil]

41. This is all a scam. He's playing the neckbeards for all they are worth. NT

[CanonRay]

43. I'm going to incorporate my toilet

And pay it every time I take a dump.

[fishwax]

46. Seems like a typical Don Con

[niyad]

47. nothing that con artist does surprises me.

[cbdo2007]

49. I'll be surprised if his campaign isn't bankrupt in 3 months with spending like this.

then he'll have to get through Sept and Oct without any advertising, etc. and that will of course go over miserably with the majority of swing voters.

[Dreamer Tatum]

51. Can you fathom the cost of him being POTUS?

He'd steal us blind.

[flamingdem]

54. Good one!!!

[benld74]

52. Heck that stuff is from Grifting 101,,,,,,,,

[Skittles]

53. he is a con man

that is what con men do

[Liberal_in_LA]

55. pure profit