Is Donald Trump Using Campaign Contributions to Enrich Himself and His Family?

Campaign reporting of the presidential candidates has a tendency to focus on which candidate is raising the most money.  Reporting generally overlooks the spending side.  You can raise a ton of money as a candidate, but if it is foolishly spent it is as if that money is not being raised at all.

That brings me to the confusing spectacle that is the 2016 election.  After a slow start, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is, during many months, matching or coming close to matching the fundraising prowess of Democrat Hillary Clinton.  Even during the months he falls short, Trump still

raises tens of millions of dollars.

We know how Hillary Clinton is spending her money.  You see the TV commercials.  She has scores of field offices in every battleground states and offices in states that aren't battlegrounds.  What about The Donald?  Trump has ONE campaign office in the critical battleground tate of Florida.  In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney was criticized for not having enough presence in the Sunshine State.  Romney had 43 offices in Florida that year.

Maybe Trump is burning through the money running TV commercials to build himself up and Hillary Clinton down?  No, that doesn't appear to be the case.  Trump's advertising has been virtually silent all summer as he ceded the airwaves to Hillary Clinton.  The former Secretary of State has used the opportunity to drive down Trump's negatives by running ads that use Trump's own words to show he lacks the temperament for office.  Of course, Trump has done, for free, much of that work for Clinton by making outrageous statements that only his most fervent supporters would find acceptable for a person running for President.

Could it be, just possibly, that Donald Trump is running for President, not to actually win, but to enrich himself and his family?  Consider the evidence thus far. When donors instead of Trump himself was paying rent for campaign offices at the Trump Tower, he had the rent quintupled...even though he had fewer staff were employed at those offices.  Further, a review of Trump campaign expenditures shows that 20% of the money spent by the campaign going to businesses that have "Trump" in the name.  Here is a sample of expenditures made through May.



My guess is this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump using other people's money to enrich himself.  If you know Trump's career, you know that's what he has done all of his life.