Politics –
TrumpSoPoor Hashtag
Mocks Improprieties
Donald Trump claims to be a wealthy tycoon, however his campaign appears to be flat broke — and that’s not even the bad news. Fundraising reports show the presumptive GOP nominee has used at least $6 million in campaign cash to line the pockets of his own companies and family members. Now, the Internet is firing back by mocking “The Donald” with the hashtag “TrumpSoPoor.”
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Things just aren’t looking good for Trump these days. The Hillary Clinton campaign has upwards of $20 million readily available cash to spend, whereas Donald “TrumpSoPoor” has a meager $1.3 million. In the world of presidential politics, that is positively pathetic!
After firing his longtime campaign manager, Trump had one full day of at least looking like he’s taking his run for the White House seriously. He finally passed the proverbial hat and begged wealthy Republican donors to help his fledgling finances. Interestingly, some among the GOP elite actually considered writing him a check… until they found out where his campaign funds have been going.
As the owner of several buildings, products and services, “TrumpSoPoor” has been pulling the wool over the public’s eyes by funneling campaign cash back into his own businesses. Here’s how his scam scheme money juggling has been working:
Trump strategically placed his campaign headquarters inside New York’s elaborate Trump Tower — which happens to be owned by him. As the landlord, Donald Trump has been able to charge the Donald Trump campaign however much he wanted. This means that when the rent came due, “TrumpSoPoor” simply took campaign funds and paid the bill with campaign contributions…which went directly to the landlord…which went… you guessed it…directly into Donald Trump’s pocket.
In January, the campaign paid out $26,000 to rent out a facility at Trump National Doral, his golf course in Miami. The campaign spent another $11,000 on Trump’s hotel in Chicago. In May, the Trump campaign paid $423,000 to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida for Trump “appearances.” The campaign also paid roughly $520,000 in rent and utilities to Trump Tower Commercial LLC and to Trump Corporation. About $5,000 campaign dollars went to Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC, which boasts several varieties of Virginia wines bearing the Trump moniker. These questionable expenditures don’t even begin to take into account how much the Trump campaign has paid to Donald Trump for the use of his private jet.
Is “TrumpSoPoor” lining his own pockets with donor contributed campaign cash? Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton seems to think so.
“What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on? Why, himself, of course,” Mrs. Clinton tweeted on Tuesday.
Understandably, already skittish donors now have a fresh batch of reasons to withhold their money.
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The Trump campaign began the month of June with only $1.3 million in the bank (less than a standard congressional race and even less than past Republican presidential candidates), which places him in an unbelievable deficit. For Republicans to learn that Trump is sending donor contributions directly to his businesses instead of paying for ads and strategies to defeat Hillary Clinton is mind-boggling.
Of course his campaign down-played any cause for concern.
“To date, the campaign’s fundraising has been incredible, and we continue to see a tremendous outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and money to the Republican Party,” the campaign said in a statement Tuesday.
New York donor Anthony Scaramucci also chimed in with his 2 cents, saying a major part of Trump’s appeal is that he’s a “non-politician” who does things differently.
Apparently that extends to Trump’s desire to mix business with politics.
Finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show the campaign has funneled a total of about $6 million back into Trump corporate products and services (so far). That’s nearly 10% of his total expenditures.
FEC reports show the campaign made about $400,000 in payments to Trump himself for donating $400,000 worth of campaign office space. Trump’s companies also charged his campaign for goods and services, including bottled water and meals (Trump steaks?). What’s worse is that the $46 million worth of loans Trump made to his campaign can all be repaid with donor money, which has created the perception of impropriety.
“This is explicitly why we divided ourselves from any and all of Steve Forbes’ corporate entities,” said Bill Dal Col, who ran Forbes’ unsuccessful 1996 and 2000 White House campaigns. “You just never want to have to worry about any blurred lines with personal, corporate, in-kind and contributor money.”
Naturally, the “TrumpSoPoor” revelations have some donors spooked.
“Why would donors give money when the first dollars go to help a billionaire buy products from his own company?” said Charlie Spies, a Republican elections attorney who frequently works with major GOP contributors.
Good question.
Hey Trump…in the words of TV’s Ricky Ricardo: “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
Keep em coming DJ. The more your readers learn what's really up with this charlatan (based of factual info), the better, Btw- Mark Cuban (billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavs) has been saying for quite some time that Trump can't "self-fund" his own campaign because Trump is NOT nearly as rich as he claims to be. In fact, Mark reiterated his belief again on Twitter yesterday: “If @realDonaldTrump were fractionally as rich as he says he is, he would write a $200m check to propel his campaign." "He doesn't have the cash.” H/T: Politico Politico Reader: Trump has lied about his wealth like he has lied about everything else. A man with a net worth of $10,000,000,000 does not run a cash strapped campaign. [….] Politico Reader: It's not just that he's short of cash – who's going to give him money so that he can use it to pay… Read more »