This truly is a new era of politics. In addition to Donald Trump being the most unique Presidential candidate in history, he’s also making a literal shit ton of money off of this campaign.
According to a new report from Politico, Donald Trump‘s companies have made over EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS just off this campaign. And when they say his companies made money off the campaign they’re not talking about a financial windfall due to Trump’s heightened level of publicity, they literally mean that Trump’s companies are getting paid by the campaign donations.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has paid his family’s businesses more than $8.2 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance filings, which reveals an integrated business and political operation without precedent in national politics.
The GOP presidential nominee’s campaign has paid his various businesses for services including rent for his campaign offices ($1.3 million), food and facilities for events and meetings ($544,000) and payroll for Trump corporate staffers ($333,000) who helped with everything from his traveling security to his wife’s convention speech.
In all, the Trump campaign’s payments to Trump-owned businesses account for about 7 percent of its $119 million spending total, the analysis found.
Among the goods and services that Trump has paid his companies for are $34,500 for lodging and event staging at Trump National Doral golf course, $48,200 for room rental and catering from the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y., and $142,000 to Trump Restaurants for rent, utilities, meals and office supplies. It paid more than $1 million to Trump Tower to rent office space for its main campaign headquarters. Trump Ice, his bottled water company, got $1,300, while his son Eric Trump’s Virginia winery was paid almost $5,000 for catering and event space.
$8.2 million is no insignificant amount of money. Trump’s a savvy businessman and recognizes that he can save his campaign money by pooling his resources, so paying himself rent seems pretty logical, right?
WATCH NEXT: There Are More People Suing Donald Trump RN Than Work In The Entire White House
This is all legal, of course, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with Trump doing this because it’s his right to do so. The potential issue proposed by pundits is that this opens a Pandora’s Box of sorts to what might happen if Trump were elected to President of the United States, and how he might continue to funnel considerable wealth into the coffers of his family’s estate. These are all hypotheticals, and while it’s certainly fair to raise those questions it’s not fair to make any assumptions.
You can head on over to POLITICO for more analysis of how much money Donald Trump’s companies have made thus far throughout his Presidential bid