Posted on 02/08/2016 1:06:58 PM PST by conservativejoy
I have to admit that I found one aspect of the Trump campaign compelling: his claim that he was self-funding and therefore free of any obligations to his financiers. Any regular reader of mine knows my obsession with money in American politics. Money may not be the root of all evil, but it is the catalyst that produces the most evil in American politics! However my gut tells me to process anything coming from The Donald’s mouth with a healthy dose of skepticism.
On face value I mistrust Trump. He looks slimy to me and has a history of being very money driven. He has a track record of making money primarily by using other people's money not his own. He has declared various bankruptcies and walked away from deals when they soured leaving other harmed and/or holding the bag.
I was one of the last to take his candidacy seriously because I couldn't figure out his motivation for running for President. Trump in not a civically motivated guy. He has never held office before. From a monetary standpoint if he won the job and performed it straight up he'd stand to lose money via lost business opportunities if nothing else. He is a guy who admittedly is used to buying politicians - why would he want to be one? My conclusion was that he had figured out some way to make money by running for and/or winning the Presidency. I just hadn't figured out his angle.
August 28th I got the first indication that my gut was on to something. That night Trump ran what had every appearance of being a fundraiser at the home of Ernie Boch, Jr. Trump denied it was a fundraiser. (See my September 1st posting, Warning Label Needed, for the details.) It appears that the Trump campaign took in around $80,000 to $100,000 that night. Not bad for a non-fundraiser!
Last Sunday Glenn Kessler, one of the premier fact-checkers in America, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, Five myths Donald Trump tells about Donald Trump. Number four was the one that caught my attention: "I'm self-funding my campaign." It is true that Trump does not have a Super PAC at this point and as far as we can tell has not taken any mega-donations from the deep pocketed, but he is far from self-funding.
Kessler looked into the numbers a bit and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where Trump can ultimately make money on the project of running for President regardless of the final result. His campaign started with a $1.8 million dollar personal loan. Keep in mind this is a loan. He has subsequently added a little over $100,000 to bringing his total "investment" to $1.9 million in round numbers. During the campaign he has raised $3.9 million in donations. While donations supposedly from smaller donors are certainly preferable to a lump sum or two from some fat cat(s) they are not the candidate's money as Trump would like you to think.
Now let's look at the spending side. The campaign has spent $5.4 million to date. About 25% or $1.35 million was spent with Trump entities, primarily the company that owns his airplane. That money is effectively just shuffled from one Trump pocket to another.
Now we see he has $1.9 million "invested", $1.8 million of which is in the form of a loan that the campaign could very well be paying back to Trump before it is all over. In the process he has already racked up $1.35 million in sales for his companies. Assuming just a 10% profit margin, the profit on the sales exceeds the non-loan "investment" in the campaign. If that loan gets paid off, which it very well may, Trump makes money on the deal.
I find it commendable that Trump has not taken anonymous, dark money to date. Does anyone actually expect that to continue past the convention if Trump is the nominee? Given his track record he will look for the loan to be repaid first and worry about his pledge second. A donation to the Trump campaign is like helping him pay off his loan to himself. Self-funding means with your own money; not other people's money!
I’ve read this from many sources. Trump is reimbursing himself from donations and he has paid his aviation company over a million dollars so far.
Oh....really. “Many sources”....lol...reminds me of those ‘unnamed sources’.
Great, then provide the links.
Again...everything has to be reported on his campaign docs. This is just grasping, now.
Ernie Boch, Jr. isn’t Goldman Sachs, Citicorp, or Soros!!!!
Are you listening? Saying that somebody looks slimy is not analysis. It puts the writer, and you as the poster, at the same level as people who complain that Cruz looks like Dracula.
Conservativejoyless posting more nonsense....looks to me like Trump is doing exactly what he says, self-funding and taking small donations from individuals. Who cares if he’s shuffling money across his enterprises, they’re still his and his money. If he can make a profit, so much the better.
I think be needs to raise more money and spend his own to build an organization, or you will get an Iowa-like result in the general election.
And he needs a super PAC.
True, after so many misrepresentations, what’s another one.
So you do care, if even a little. How much do you care?
Did you mean "I could not care less."?
Words are supposed to have meanings.
I DON’T CARE ON IOTA. NIL, NOT EVEN FOR A MOMENT. THERE YOU GO. CAPISH?
If Trump wins the primary, the first pledge to be broken will be the self funding one. It will take over a billion (with a b) dollars to run a full fledged campaign. Some estimates put it as high as 1.5 billion. Trump’s liquid assets are estimated at between 70 and 80 million (with an M). He would have to take out loans against his properties or sell them. Even for him a billion dollar loan would not be so easy in this down economy, banks want their money back. Plus he has a history of bankruptcies to work around.
If he decides to sell off properties it would have to be a fire sale, meaning he would have to settle for a fraction of the value. There would not be time for years of negotiations and counter offers. I don’t think his business attitude would allow him to do that.
The only other alternative is super PACs. Individual donations would never cover the total cost of the campaign. It would be interesting to see which Saudi prince is the first and biggest donor, but I’m sure he would take mostly from unnamed sources, just like all those evil people he is running against.
Thank me
The Trump campaign is not self-financed. It is funded by money Trump loaned the Trump campaign and Trump has shuffled funds around to make it look as though his campaign is self-financed, when in fact the Trump campaign is not self-financed. It is financed by Trump himself.
Am I missing something or is this the heart of the darkness you see when you look deeply into this dark mystery. It is indeed a conundrum. How can the campaign be self-financed when Trump financed it himself? Please let us know if you ever get to the bottom of this profound and disturbing issue.
I have not heard one Trump supporter here come close to calling him perfect. What we say he is the best candidate to fight PC, Muslims, illegals and lobbyist. We aren’t electing a priest . We should all be able to agree no man today is perfect.
At every rally I have listened to he adds that he accepts small individual contributions. I would have been insulted if he had rejected mine and I know my small amount won’t buy me favors or a night in the Lincoln bedroom. Those large corporate donations and untraceable shell company donations to other candidates likely will by favors.
Exactly, that is where I first read about this, after his financial reports were filed.
this profound and disturbing issue... How can the campaign be self-financed when Trump financed it himself?
Each can weigh the profundity of this issue for his or her self: Trump claims his campaign is "self-funded" which would mean *not* funded by others. This is not true.
” However my gut tells me “
Gut feeling means inchoate emotions flitting around the candle of prejudicial longings. Snuff it.
Okay. You should be able to find a link, then.
So you are not just reporting what someone else wrote, but are standing behind it and trying to argue that there is some deep issue here. Well, Geesh!
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