This article was originally published on The Atlantic. The Real Villains of San Francisco's Morality Play
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If he loses out on the nomination for lack of willingness to spend, Trump will come off looking penny-wise and pound-foolish. Since a few million dollars is basically chump change to Trump, why hasn’t he been more willing to open up his wallet earlier? If Trump is unable to seal the deal in the Republican primary, it probably won’t be because of lack of support-it will be because of lack of reliable polling, get-out-the-vote efforts, advertising, and the like. Recommended: Donald Trump and the Return of the 1920sĪnd that’s the biggest mystery of all. (The campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.) The new, alleged ad blitz shows that while Trump has managed to defy the rules of politics as conventionally understood, his campaign still believes there’s value in broadcast advertising. Some contributions are “unsolicited,” in Trump’s words, but the rest comes from buying merchandise or clicking on the large “donate” buttons on his website. Most of the balance, $3.9 million, came from donors. Trump loaned his campaign just over $1.8 million during the second quarter of this year, but as of Oct 1. While Trump isn’t holding fundraisers in the traditional sense-no bundlers, no $2,700 per plate dinners, no multimillionaire-backed super PACs-he is taking in money in the form of donations, whether as cash or as payment for those confounded "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” hats. But what if that really is what’s going on? One of the other mysteries of Trump’s spending is that despite his nearly constant mentions that he’s self-funding his campaign, it’s not really true. But the image of the Trump campaign as a model of financial frugality and rectitude is undercut by the fact that- as Tim Fernholz spotted-he’s paying about a quarter of his campaign expenses to himself, in the form of payouts to his own companies.įernholz wryly notes that Trump suggested in 2000, during an earlier presidential flirtation, that he could be the first candidate to make a profit on a campaign.
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He noted in another tweet that his campaign was $35 million under budget.
#TRUMP SPENT MONEY ON SELF UPDATE#
To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. The super PAC supporting President Trump’s re-election is planning a 10 million advertising spree to attack former Vice President Joseph R.