As befitting a man who laughs in the face of impropriety, Donald Trump
does not particularly care about the optics of using his campaign to
boost his own businesses. In 2000, he told an interviewer that he “could
be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” a
prediction he would fulfill 15 years later as he promoted, at various
times, steaks, bottled water, golf courses, and, famously, in a media
bait-and-switch, his new hotel in Washington, D.C. (Those rumors that
his presidential run was a promotional stunt for the D.C. hotel came
full circle that day.) But there’s boosting one’s businesses through
free publicity (and Trump has reportedly received more than $3 billion
in free media since he launched his campaign), and then there’s the
results of a new Politico report, which found that Trump has used his
campaign’s money to pay his own businesses $8.2 million. According to
Politico, F.E.C. filings also revealed a $1,300 expense for his
bottled-water company, Trump Ice; $432,000 for catering, facilities, and
putting up the campaign at his resort Mar-a-Lago; and $6 million for
the use of Trump’s plane, the largest expense in their filings.
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