Politics As A Profit Center

I suspected many months ago that Trump was playing the money game by running for office as he gave his speeches.  Now I have more evidence.

The recent Federal Election Commission filings provide information Trump would preferred to hide.  But unlike tax filings, those are public.

Trump says he is financing his campaign.   Well, not really.  He is LOANING money to his campaign (and loans usually have interest charges). That's right, he is loaning personal money (and it may be more tricky than that) to his campaign.  That means he is signing the checks on both sides of the loan!  The campaign is obligated to back Trump back for the money he is essentially loaning to himself.

Don't you wish you could borrow money that easily and expect payment back?  But it gets worse... 

Trump is using his own businesses to support his campaign.  And he is charging his campaign a hefty sum for "privilege" of using his own services.  The idea seems to be that he will use his own companies to benefit financially supporting his Presidential campaign.  Its a great gig, if you can arrange it.  And Trump does.

Use his his own jet to fly to campaign stops?  Trump charges himself high fees.  Staying at his own residences in various States?  Trump charges the top rates to his campaign.  Eat at a fundraiser (and yes he has them though he says he doesn't) you eat Trump steak and drink Trump wine.  Get given a framed picture of The Donald for a donation?  That picture comes in a Trump Picture Frame. 

Play a round of golf with Trump?  High green fees for the round charged to his campaign.   He charges the campaign to operate his campaign in various business locations he profits from. 

Staffers and campaign supporters eat at Trump restaurants, fly accumulating Trump miles, and wear Trump T-shirts made by Trump companies.  Those Trump hats he tosses out at campaign rallies?  A staffer company makes those and the campaign pays top dollar for them.

On the single day Trump announced his campaign in June 2015, his campaign cost generated $506,846 to Trump businesses.  One single day!

By the end of just 2015, the Trump campaign paid out $2.2 million, $2 million of which went to the airline where Trump is the CEO...

$90,000 went to staffers eating at Trump Cafe and Trump Grill...

Unspecified amounts went to Trump Payroll Corp. and Trump Tower Commercial LLC to pay for campaign staff payroll management, but that work isn't cheap...

This isn't a campaign, its a profit-making scam!  The Republican party has finally produced the perfect example of its long-held claim that businessmen (and it's usually men) are the most suited to run the country for the benefit of all the citizens.  If running for office is now a profit-center for Republican candidates to operate as a business, do you want to see what laws they pass?  I sure don't.