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!
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/donald-trump-fec-fundraising-214838
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/no-donald-trump-isnt-self-funding-his-campaign/
https://politicalwire.com/2015/11/11/trump-is-not-self-funding-his-campaign/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.