“I don’t need anybody’s money… I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”
(Donald Trump before 2015 election)
The only multi-billionaire and the wealthiest president in the history of the United States declared before the 2015 presidential election that he would not need anyone to finance his campaign. Little did anybody know that the same Donald Trump would end up stealing the political donations of millions of Republicans.
Republicans funding into Trump’s pocket is making him wealthier, while his supporters believe that they are contributing to the Republican party.
Political fundraising is one of the most critical parts of Trump’s digital election campaign. However, the check and balance mechanisms are extremely poor.
As a result, Trump ended up pushing millions of dollars donated by the Republicans from all over the country into his private business.
The interesting thing is that this is not a one-time event; the fund-stealing spans over the whole tenure of his presidency. However, the news came into the limelight as he committed fraud with the political funds collected in the Georgia run-off election campaign.
While Republicans may think that they are donating money to put their Senators in Congress, the truth is that they are just funding the pockets of Donald Trump.
“Save America,” a political venture inaugurated by Donald Trump after losing the November election, is funded heavily by the Georgia fundraising. Hence, all of this money will be diverted into the private businesses of Donald Trump as he leaves office on January 20, 2021.
How is Republicans funding going into Trump’s pockets? What can the consequences of this be for Trump’s political career? Let’s have a look.
Trump Feeding his Business with Republicans Funding:
According to the reports of the Federal Election Commission, the political donations collected by the Trump campaign are used extensively on paying the rent, food, and lodging services of various Trump’s corporations.
Massive financial fraud was also done by the election fraud rhetoric which Donald Trump pursued after losing the elections.
Let’s explore how Trump is funding his business with Republicans funding.
- According to the Federal fillings, since the inauguration of Trump in office in 2016, Donald Trump’s campaign has paid more than $1.5 million to Trump Tower.
- The Trump Corporation, a real estate company, has received more than $281,000 from the hard-earned Republicans’ money, according to the fillings. These payments were given to the company under the name of “legal and IT consulting,” the services which the company does not even offer.
- Similarly, Trump Restaurants received almost $117,000 from Trump’s campaign since the arrival of the billionaire president in office.
- Trump hotels were credited with $226,000 since January 20, 2017, from the Republicans funding.
Even apart from the Trump campaign, his joint-fundraising committees, along with the Republican National Committee, paid almost $4.7 million to the Trump chain of businesses.
Using Shell Company For Republicans Funding Diversion: Fraud at its Best:
The latest report reveals that Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka Trump and senior advisor to Donald Trump, helped Trump create a shell company to divert Republicans’ hard-earned funds toward Trump’s family.
The company, named American Made Media Consultants Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC, was formed in 2018 by Kushner. The board of directors of the company included Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, and Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence, the CFO of the Trump campaign.
This way, the shell company succeeded in diverting $619 million out of $1.26 billion of the war chest toward Trump’s family. The company was set up just to make the source of the income untraceable, but the recent revelations will put Trump in hot water.
Brendan Fischer, a financial expert, commented on the purpose of forming the company and described it as a,
“scheme to evade telling voters even the basics on where its money is really going (and a) shield to disguise the ultimate recipients of its spending,”
(Brendan Fischer, Director of Campaign Legal Center)
Trump Stealing Georgia Campaign Money: Another Attempt to Capture Republicans Funding:
Even after losing the elections, he is leaving no stone unturned to capture the money of the Republicans as he spends his last days in the White House.
The undecided races of Georgia gave him another opportunity to redirect the Republicans funding to his private businesses.
The Republican National Committee signed a fundraising email recently mentioning,
“Securing these two critical Senate seats is absolutely paramount. We need YOU to make sure we have the resources to WIN BIG.”
(RNC fundraising email)
This is true that winning at least one seat in the Georgia run-off election is an absolute necessity for the Republicans. If they manage to win one of the two contested seats, they will be able to win the Senate majority. To make a significant impact on the legislative process in the next two years, they need to win the Senate. However, the ambitions of Donald Trump suggest otherwise.
The Republicans, who perceive Donald Trump as God, are busy funding the campaign, and Trump himself is busy in turning these funds into his bank balance.
The interesting part is that, in the case of Georgia, the funding allocation criteria are mentioned explicitly on the campaign website. It seems that people are donating even without reading the website, as they trust Trump blindly
According to the said criteria, 75% of any donation goes directly to Trump’s PAC. The rest of the 25% of the money is being eaten by RNC. It means that the campaigns of both the Senate candidates are not getting even a single dollar from all the fundraising.
“Save America” is a political venture launched by Trump in the aftermath of the election loss. This venture has raised almost $207.5 million since its inauguration.
All the money collected in the Save America funding is likely to be used in Trump’s private businesses, as it will have no purpose left after January 20, 2021.
Is this Corruption the Beginning of Trump’s End?
A president who pursued the rhetoric of paying all of his finances before his arrival in the office ended up corrupting millions of dollars of Americans.
Despite being the first-ever multi-billionaire president in the history of the country, he decided to choose the corrupted path.
The insane part of all of this is that despite flooding so much money into his private businesses, Donald Trump paid a mere sum of $750 in taxes. Now when this news came into the limelight, it would be interesting how he is perceived among the Republicans.
Before this, the mammoth amount of support that Donald Trump enjoys both from the Republican supporters and within the party is unprecedented.
Whether the popularity of Donald Trump in the Republican circles will reduce is a separate issue, yet his rivals will try to initiate legal inquiries against him amid this unprecedented news.
It is an alarming situation as the president, who was trusted by millions of Republicans nationwide, deprived them of their money.
Probably, Trump knows that it is the end of his political career, so he wants to get as much advantage as he can in his last days of office. Even if he pursues his 2024 campaign now, the likelihood to win the presidency again for him will reduce, as his misdoings will be visible to his staunch supporters globally.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.