A new report shows that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has spent nearly $7.7 million on his own companies since May of this year.
According to Federal Election Committee filings, the cost of rent for the Trump Tower, Trump’s campaign headquarters, went from $35,458 in March to $169,758 in July. He has also spent $260,000 on his golf courses and restaurants, and in July he spent $495,000 on air travel using his private plane, which burns roughly $10,000 of fuel per hour.
This bump in spending has increased since Trump clinched the Republican nomination in May, which led to a fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee. Prior to May, most of Trump’s campaign was self-funded. Coincidentally, his spending was far less extravagant when he was using his own money.
While Trump’s recent spending habits aren’t technically illegal, it should raise some alarms amongst his campaign donors and supporters. In June, the Trump campaign spent only $115,000 for online advertising, and $208,000 on hats, $5,000 on signs and $694,000 on other merchandise.
This information comes at an interesting time, as Trump has continually refused to release his tax information for the past year, which presidential candidates have done for decades. The information also came after the revelation that Trump companies are roughly $650 million in debt.
Spending campaign money on his own companies is not the only way that Trump has been making money off of his election bid. As of May, according to Forbes, Trump had seen an increase in annual revenue of $190 million.
This brings into question how serious Donald Trump is about making it to the White House. He doesn’t use campaign money to advertise in states where he is sorely behind in the polls, and he refuses to change his tactics when it’s obvious that they’re not working.
