C'mon now. Trump's dead broke campaign has been paying Trump's companies a lot of money Trump's self funding includes payments to himself and companies Google will find you plenty of similar stories. Look up "Hollywood accounting" for further info. It's like this: I'm gonna run for president. I'm going to need to fly around. Good thing I own a plane! So I'm going to donate my plane's services to myself... and I'm going to report that donation at $5000 an hour. Now - it might only cost me $1000 an hour to fly that plane, but the theoretical rack rate for my plane is pretty much the bleeding edge of ridiculous, so I'm going to mark it up 5x. Lo and behold. A two-hour flight in my own plane becomes a $10k "self-funded campaign donation." Now I get to raise money to pay for my campaign - which is expensive. After all, it costs me $5k an hour just to fly from event to event! And I have to pay back the good donors that are helping me fight the good fight. So my plane is going to get back $10k for every two hour flight. And just like that, I get to suck down $4k in profit every time I fly an hour in my own damn plane. Multiply by everything. Would... you mount a failed bid for president if you could pocket even ten percent of $45.7 million? I would. And I hate public speaking. Trump? I don't think he exists unless there's a camera pointed at him.The FEC report shows the campaign now owes Trump $45.7 million, after he lent an additional $2.2 million last month. Trump's lending produced four of every 10 dollars in May receipts. Trump, who claims to be worth more than $10 billion, says he plans to rely on donors to fund his fall general election campaign.
Thanks for posting this. wow... rabbit hole. For fun - if anyone wants to play along, take a look: http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00580100/1079423/sb/ALL/3 scroll down... or just do a ctrl-F for "donald". Also - I've just started thinking on this, and can't come up with why... but what is the significance of $2574.43? It's a very common number in this list of expenses.
It's a weekly payroll payment to three "people," his head of security, "Trump Tower Commercial, LLC," and, ummmmm, to himself, as an "in kind" payment. Apparently, nobody knows wtf Trump Tower Commercial, LLC is. Seems like a tax scam.
That is one of the things that has always annoyed me about his campaign money bullshit. He has always taken in donations and paid out over 100% of that to his own corporations; thereby profiteering of his own supporters. Then loaning his own money to the campaign. I am not sure exactly how election law work in this regard but it would be hilarious if the campaign eventually went bankrupt if they could not pay him back and then he tried to deduct it as a business expense. As of today he is still calling campaign donations "blood money" where you have to give up so much to get it. Surely the self-proclaimed "world's best negotiator" can win that arrangement. But apparently even he thinks not.
At least with a used car you get something out of the deal. Trump is more of a snake oil salesman. He's also accruing interest on those loans, you know... That was deemed legal and is done quite a bit by most candidates (loan, add an interest rate). It's the combo deal that makes him even slimier. I think the most baffling thing about Trump is that people are voting for him since they see him as the guy "telling it like it is" and pointing out the corruption in politics, yet he's the one who is the absolute BEST at being a rich corrupt politician. He doesn't even need to lie to the people about what he's doing, because the people are just that stupid.
Motives: Money grab - check Publicity and recognition - absolutely Planning future career as BS fountain - plausible, but can he plan? Money laundering - if he loans money to himself and donors pay him back it's not money laundering, it's creative abuse of campaign finance and tax deduction laws. Anyway It's impossible to know whether the money or the audiences are more important to him. I think the audience has an edge. You said he could be inspired by Palin's success. I'm sure he sees the potential customers in his fans for more "telling it like it is" afterwards. The campaign money is small change compared to a dedicated audience.
I will freely acknowledge that there's nothing illegal about what Trump is doing. I will, however, point out that for purposes of discussion, the distinction between "money laundering" and "creative abuse of campaign finance and tax deduction laws" is a semantic one.