Donald Trump Used Campaign Donations to Buy $55,000 of His Own Book

[CPUd]

Donald Trump Used Campaign Donations to Buy $55,000 of His Own Book
FEC rules dictate the Republican nominee must forgo royalties on the book’s sales, or else the $55,000 purchase at Barnes & Noble was illegal.


Donald Trump used his campaign funds to buy thousands of copies of his own book at retail cost, simultaneously diverting donor money back into his pockets while artificially boosting his sales figures. It’s a tactic that may be illegal, campaign finance experts say.

On May 10, the Trump campaign paid Barnes & Noble $55,055, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. That amounts to more than 3,500 copies of the hardcover version of Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or just over 5,000 copies of the renamed paperback release, Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.

A spokesperson for the Republican nominee told The Daily Beast the books were purchased “as part of gifting at the convention, which we have to do.” Sure enough, delegates in attendance at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July were given canvas tote bags, stamped with the Trump slogan, and filled with copies of Crippled America, as well as Kleenex and Make America Great Again! cups, hats, and T-shirts. Delegates were also given plastic fetus figurines.

The Republican National Committee did not respond when asked to confirm that its presidential candidate was required to spend tens of thousands in campaign funds on copies of his own book. And a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, asked if they’d ever done something similar, said, “We think we’ve probably purchased a copy or two just to have in the office, but the campaign has never purchased her book in bulk or anything close to that.”

Paul Ryan (not that one), of the nonpartisan nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said that Trump would have to forgo accepting royalties for sales on the book in order for the transaction to be legal, under Federal Election Committee rules.

“It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher,” Ryan said. “That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use. There’s a well established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket.”

When asked if Trump agreed to forgo royalties for sales of the book, the Trump campaign refused to comment on the record while representatives at Simon & Schuster, Trump’s publisher, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-own-book.html

[euphemia]

Actually authors are usually given about a 40% discount on their own books. Authors often buy their own books to take to seminars and conferences. It's all a very complicated equation, depending on what the contract says.

[enhanced_deficit]

If Donald had to step down due to book scandal, who will take his place to make America great again?



Related

In case Hillary had to step down due to corruption scandal, will Sanders become the nominee?

[luctor-et-emergo]

Meh, 55K is not too much. I expect him to suck more money out of his presidential campaign.

Is he renting his plane to himself ?

[CPUd]

Meh, 55K is not too much. I expect him to suck more money out of his presidential campaign.

Is he renting his plane to himself ?

Not exactly, but:

Trump Ripping Off Donors? Rent For Campaign Skyrockets

Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential nominee, has always opined about how great of a businessman he is; how “yugely” successful his ventures have become and the great things they have created. And based on past statements of his, it would seem his profiteering is not limited to just his private enterprises. In the past, Trump has gloated about how he could make a run for the White House profitable, saying, “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

Unfortunately, it looks as if he may be doing just that. With reports already showing that about 9% of Trump campaign expenditures going to Trump-owned entities, there is a new report out of the The Huffington Post claiming that The Donald has raised the rent on some of the offices in Trump Tower. Specifically, the ones where he staffs his own campaign. It would seem that these accusations were nothing but mere smear tactics by critics, but the evidence appears to be pretty apparent.

The charges are not some minuscule amounts, nitpicking at a minor fluctuation. Rather, in the time frame from March to July, the charges appear to have quintupled. The rent in the span of 5 months has ballooned from $35,458 to $169,758. Not to mention that alongside this astronomical increase, the amount paid to employees dropped. Compounding the issue further, The Huffington Post goes on to argue that Trump’s campaign was only majorly self-funded during his primary run, but after the month of May, it has completely reversed.

The reality of the facts has become so convincing to many that it has one Republican National Committee Member saying, “Nobody cares when you’re spending your own money, but when you’re spending the donor’s $27, that could cause problems.”

Another RNC member even went as far to say, “If I was a donor, I would want answers. If they don’t have any more staff, and they’re paying five times more? That’s the kind of stuff I’d read and try to make an (attack) ad out of it.”

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/tr...nt-skyrockets/