Since leaving the White House, documents have emerged suggesting that Donald Trump is swallowing money from American taxpayers for his own benefit.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) analyzed the latest collection of documents and discovered that the Secret Service spent nearly $2 million on Trump's property.
CREW noted that if Trump made visits to his property nearly 550 times, it would be "bad enough." However, Trump stopped there, he "used trips to fill his pockets with taxpayer money by protecting his Secret Service:.
What's more, CREW's second report illustrates another development of the story, which is particularly worrying given what just happened with the school shooting in Ovaldi, Texas.
The report indicates, when Trump met with victims and first responders after the October 1, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, that he was apparently trying to get paid for his appearance by making sure he and his entourage remained in the Trump Las Vegas Hotel. Vegas, which cost taxpayers about $ 50 thousand.
It is also interesting to note that in February 2020, Trump visited four or so states in the West, but returned every night to sleep at the Trump Las Vegas Hotel. The move added an estimated $1.1 million in Air Force One expenses.
Mike Pence wasn't far behind. A few days after Trump's 2017 visit to Las Vegas, Pence traveled there to attend a memorial service for the victims of the shooting. He also settled in the Trump Hotel Las Vegas, where he paid a bill totaling $15,892 on the Trump property.
This is not the first time Trump has found himself amid accusations of financial fraud.
Despite not being in New York, Donald Trump's political action committee paid $ 375 thousand to rent an office in Trump Tower, according to HuffPost.
"It's a big scam," said one former aide. "I cannot believe that his rule allows him to get away with it."
According to HuffPost's review of campaign finance reports, the Trump Make America Great Again PAC project spent $37,541.67 per month for ten months in 2021 renting space in the Trump Organization's Manhattan skyscraper.
HuffPost reported that "the former assistant's confirmation was confirmed by a Trump Tower employee checking traffic to offices above open floors for visitors." When asked for permission to visit Trump's political office recently, the employee told HuffPost that Save America and associated entities did not have offices there. "Everything ran out of Florida," he said, refusing to give his name.
The Trump campaign also rented a vacant space in Trump Tower.
"This was the same monthly amount his campaign spent there from mid-2017 until the end of 2020, when his campaign was in northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington," HuffPost reported. "In all those months, there was at most one person periodically visiting the 7,000-square-foot office in Trump Tower," the former aide said. But Trump insisted that the campaign continue to rent there - as it did during the 2016 election - because the building was having trouble finding tenants, he said.
After donors began covering the tab in 2016, Trump reportedly increased the rent his campaign was paying in Trump Tower by five times.
The HuffPost noted that "the $375,417 Trump spent on unused office space is more than $350,500 donated by his Save America committee last year to Republican candidates vying for office, which appears to be Trump's goal to raise funds for his committees."
From mid-2017 until the end of 2020, while his campaign was really concentrated in northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, this was the same monthly amount his campaign spent there.
According to the former employee, only one individual visited the 7,000-square-foot office in Trump Tower on a regular basis during those months. However, because the building had problems finding tenants, Trump insisted that the campaign continue to rent there, as had happened throughout the 2016 election. "They realized they couldn't afford to lose much money because the building was in a terrible state."
Trump's presidential campaign committee was renamed Make America Great Again PAC after the 2020 election, and the property was rented back. It is currently only used to store campaign souvenirs, according to the former assistant. He said, "Nobody works in this office." "He sits there closed."
Although Trump still uses his position to direct funds from donors to himself, according to Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, he does not appear to be illegal. "There is no law stating that you cannot use this as a scam to enrich yourself. Let him do this. It is sleazy, but it is legal ".
Trump paid $375,417 for vacant office space, more than the $350,500 Save America committee he gave Republican presidential candidates last year, which appears to be Trump's goal to generate funds for his committees.
After losing the election in November 2020, Trump used similar tactics when he founded the Rescue Committee for America's "Leadership," claiming in emails and text messages to tens of millions of supporters that the money would be used to help Republicans win the key U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia to take control of that chamber. Despite raising $76 million in the weeks leading up to the January 5, 2021 runoff, Trump has not spent any of it on Republican contenders. Instead, it almost certainly caused both Republicans to lose by questioning the legitimacy of Georgia's election after the state voted for Democrat Joe Biden for president, lowering the Republican turnout.
The amount that Trump's properties received from GOP candidates and groups that organized events at his various properties and otherwise visited them dwarfs Trump's overall gifts to candidates. Only candidates and federal committees, the Trump Tennis and Croquet Social Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he lives and has a post-presidential office supported by taxpayers, received payments of $427,196 last year.
A total of $153,243 received his hotels and golf courses in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.
The Trump Committee to Save America ended 2021 with $105 million, which, unlike the campaign committee with strict spending limits, could be used for almost anything, including paying personal costs or even giving himself a substantial income.
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