Trump moved more than $1 million from his political groups to his private business after losing the election

DDonald Trump never stopped fundraising from his supporters after the 2020 presidential race. His companies, meanwhile, continued to charge their political teams for goods and services. As a result, the former president has been able to convert about $1.3 million of donor money into business income since he lost the 2020 election, according to a review of the latest federal documents.

In the months immediately following the election, much of the money came from Trump’s official campaign committee, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. On December 1, 2020, the committee paid $38,000 for lease to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the entity through which the former president owns the space inside Trump Tower. Fifteen days later another $38,000 of rent moved from the campaign committee to that same LLC. The committee also made two payments of $3,000 around the same time to an entity called Trump Restaurants LLC. The former president, who is worth an estimated $3 billion, also owns 100% of that company, according to an analysis of documents his business filed with federal and local officials while he was president. Between the election and the end of 2020, the Trump campaign committee gave $113,000 to Trump’s business.

In the New Year, Trump didn’t really shut down his campaign committee. On the other hand the renowned making it the Make America Great Again PAC. As of January 4, 2021, that PAC began funneling money to the Trump Organization, delivering $8,000 to Trump Hotel Collection at the end of the month. The group also issued rent checks to the same entities the campaign had previously been paying:$38,000 to Trump Tower Commercial LLC every month or so and often another $3,000 to Trump Restaurants LLC. It’s unclear why the Make America Great Again PAC still needed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent in 2021, given that the election was held in 2020. Representatives for the PAC and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. . As of the end of February 2022, the Make America Great Again PAC had paid $526,000 to Trump businesses, according to the Federal Election Commission’s review of filings.

It’s unclear why the Make America Great Again PAC still needed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent in 2021, given that the election was held in 2020.

While the campaign committee and its renamed branch cut big rent checks, other Trump political groups splurged on the former president’s hotels. Nine days after the election, a joint fundraising committee called Trump Victory, which raised funds for the Trump campaign and various statewide Republican groups, paid $294,000 to the Trump Hotel Collection. smaller sums Following. Trump Victory ended up spending more than $300,000 from the election through February 2021, when it last recorded payment on a Trump property.

Other entities took over. In June 2021, a joint fundraising committee raising money for Trump and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham paid for Trump’s hotels. $22,000. Six months later, another joint fundraising committee handed over Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach club, $34,000.

Then there was Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America. Leadership PACs often allow politicians to dole out money to other candidates they support. In Trump’s case, the group also served as a vehicle for directing donor money to his business. From February 2021 to May 2022, the Trump leadership PAC spent $213,000 on Trump property.

The Save America payments generated some press recently, as the Select Committee to Investigate on January 6^the The attack on the United States Capitol took notice of the group’s operations. The former president told his supporters that they could donate to something called the Official Elections Defense Fund, although such a fund did not appear to exist, according to the committee. Instead, most of the money went to Save America, which in turn paid a small portion to Trump’s business. “It wasn’t just the Big Lie,” concluded Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat. “There was the big scam.”