Hi
I want to fact-check how Trump’s funding of his campaign is to his advantage compared to previous self-funders like Ross Perot.
“there is a difference between self funding, and owing debt to yourself. In the former case he is SPENDING his money on his campaign. In the latter case, he takes campaign donations to pay off his loan to himself, with interest. In other words, he MAKES money on his campaign.”
This was a comment after the Atlantic Article. Is this correct? The comment is 31 comments down after the article.
Thanks for this question. It was an interesting article.
I have to wonder, in this day and age of the weird casino that is the markets. If there may be some betting for and against that campaign debt. Can you go long or short on Trump campaign financials?
After the convention. If he is actually the party candidate. Will the big donors come in and sort of buy that debt and then enough more for the presidential campaign? From the financial point of view of big donors. I don’t think they see Trump as a better horse to bet on, to any big money degree. For the big money, Trump or Clinton probably doesn’t make a big difference on their return on investment.
The Republican side of donors can probably keep their money in their pockets. Let Clinton win. And still cash in fine, for free, on the money that the big donors to the Clinton campaign spent.
When it comes to being really rich and getting preferential treatment to remain really rich or get richer. It’s only a fraction of a percentage plus or minus, Clinton or Trump.
I think the big Republican money can sit this one out just fine.
Thanks Kedikat. Trump comes across as one who isn’t likely to fork out any money if he can’t make (hefty) return on his investment, whether he wins or loses the presidential race.
He uses his businesses for his campaign, holding news conferences at his hotel in New York as an example. He is required to have his campaign pay for that. So far this hasn’t mattered since he’s mostly self funded. This whole story has been ginned up by the Hillary campaign.
Technically, what’s happening is that his campaign is purchasing services (such as facility rentals, catering, jet charters, etc.) from businesses that are owned by Trump and his family. As long as the campaign pays “fair market rates” for the services, this is permitted. In fact, if the businesses didn’t charge for these services, then the businesses would effectively be making donations to the campaign, with possible tax & legal implications for both sides.
It still looks a bit tacky to be shuffling money from one Trump-related enterprise to another, and the campaign could avoid the issue if they wanted to by using other businesses — but it’s not illegal per se.
Well - according to this article, all of his “contributions” have actually been loans and the campaign could pay him back for it. He has denied that the campaign will pay him back, but so far, the campaign is still treating everything as a loan and is still raising money to pay for primary expenses.
The fact that his campaign spent $423,372 just for rent and catering at his Florida club in one month is astonishing! That’s 6% of his campaign spending for the month. (And virtually nothing for TV ads.)
How much a month did Jimmy Carter pay for his campaign headquarters in Plains?
There are rumors that some wealthy donors are hesitant to donate to his campaign because they think most of it will in up in The Donald’s pocket.
Rumors from Hillary’s campaign. The only thing unusual about Trump’s campaign financing is that almost all of it has come from his own pockets so far. You’d have to back a long way to find the last Democratic or Republican candidate who did that.
The reason wealthy donors are hesitant to donate to his campaign is because he keeps acting crazy.
And if the campaign doesn’t (or can’t) pay him back, he just declares those as bad loans, uncollectable, and deducts them from his taxes a s a business loss.
Trump has reportedly “forgiven” his campaign’s $50 million in loans from himself. How that plays in the worlds of business and regulations, I have no idea.
Well - from the above link, he has said that he will forgive the loan and consider the money a donation. However - from the latest FEC filings by the campaign, they are still considered loans. So he certainly may. But he hasn’t yet.
It closer to $43M. Somehow the number got exaggerated upwards. Color me unsurprised.
They already said he was going to do this a while back. Said. But it was not carried out at that time. Until the forms hit the FEC, who knows if it’s going to happen.