Nearly $5 million donated to former President Trump's 2024 presidential campaign went to his business empire, financial records show. Trump's businesses collected $4.6 million in campaign money through payments for food, transportation, and facilities, Forbes reports, citing Federal Election Commission records. Some $4.2 million went to Tag Air, one of Trump's aviation companies. Of that, $800,000 was reportedly for travel expenses paid by the Secret Service. The campaign separately paid $332,000 to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club and personal residence, $36,000 to Trump's Las Vegas hotel, and $20,000 to the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami.
Other Trump-related groups have been paying, too. Trump's leadership political action committee, Save America, spent $335,000 at Trump hotels, per Forbes. The political action committee that formed out of Trump's 2020 campaign spent about $500,000 on rented space in Trump Tower from November 2020 to February 2022 while Trump's joint-fundraising committees paid Trump businesses an additional $1 million, Forbes reports. Trump's joint fundraising committee paid $411,287 to Mar-a-Lago in February and March alone, per USA Today. The outlet notes "other GOP candidates also have been spending considerable campaign cash at Trump properties."
The transactions are legal as long as they represent fair market value, though critics say they show an effort by Trump to enrich himself. A campaign rep sidestepped questions about the transactions while pointing out Trump donated his $400,000 annual presidential salary while in office. But as Forbes notes, Trump "has charged his campaign far more than he donated in salary." The former president, worth an estimated $6.4 billion, hasn't donated any personal money to his campaign. (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)
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