Trump spent $55K in donations on copies of his book

Because...of course he did..

Both returning the money to himself in royalties and artificially boosting his book sales..

At issue is whether the Trump campaign funneled donor money into Trump’s pockets while boosting the nominee’s book sales.

“It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher,” Paul Ryan of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center told The Daily Beast.

“That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use,” he added. "There’s a well-established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket."

NOTE: He paid retail prices at Barnes and Noble...when he could have gotten them for less from the publisher.
The difference...by buying them at retail (B&N) he gets royalties on the purchase and it counts toward sales tracking for the Best Seller list (albeit fraudulently)

The expenditure amounts to more than 3,500 copies of the hardcover version of Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or more than 5,000 copies of the retitled paperback version, Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.

Other FEC filings have shown the GOP nominee has spent millions of dollars in campaign money to travel by a private airline owned by Trump, and he also spends campaign money at buildings and restaurants he owns.

A Huffington Post report on Monday found Trump had raised the rent 500 percent on his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in Manhattan once he started receiving campaign funds from the Republican Party.

His rapid response PR team offered the excuse he bought them for swag bags at the RNC for delegates.
And the book was in fact included in a gift bag to delegates there..but no explanation on why he needed 3,000 to 5,000 copies or why he paid retail at Barnes and Noble.

LINKs Here:
thehill.com...
www.rawstory.com...

a reply to: Indigo5


Ohhh Trumpy.. that wasn't smart. He's all about his image and the bottom line. Not for the American people like so many would believe. Egomaniac (this is nothing compared to the scandals surrounding the other candidate though)

So he gave them away in a goodie bag..I'd rather had the money

Horrifying.

Deserves a closer look.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Horrifying.

Deserves a closer look.

I understand youre joking here.

Funny the marginal crap they can scrape up on Trump to put up against the actually horrifying corruption of his opponent.

Even if he put the 55k directly into his mattress, STILL...

TRUMP 2016

No way is he signing off on all this stuff. Does not look good for sure but he does not manage on this level. He hires shrewd people to do it. And the DNC does not have to agree to it so somebody on their end is also not looking out for donors. I'm not defending it at all but it gets a lot harder to manage on that level the higher you go. The main thing though is it illegal. I don't see a legal issue but more of a morale issue and that is the main difference between these two right now. One has some morality issues, the other has morality issues and also criminal issues due to those morality issues.

Both Trump and Hitlery's personality assessment by Oxford University show they register in a range many psychopaths have scored in. Trump is actually worse than Hillary, and ironically worse than Hitler. But I can't make his name sound funny. Womp womp. Screw them both, God have mercy on our dumb@ss's for allowing this.

it certainly looks like Trump is funneling much of his campaign money into his pocket. His campaign is spending lots of money on or at places Trump owns. Books, plane, Trump office space, ...

a reply to: roadgravel

Of course he is. This is all a stunt, so he mine as well pay himself for his time. This whole election is a facade to cover our "democracy". The only democratic process that remains is companies vote with $$$

Hillary keeps more than $55k in her diapers for on-the-spot PAY TO PLAY action.

Hitler? Really. Ok. Let's see, who has museums all over the world dedicated to millions of people killed by one person because of hate. Oh that would be Trump....meh.

a reply to: LifeMode

Oh lighten up. I have to joke to keep my sanity during this joke of an election cycle. It was a study and of course I took it with a block of salt.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: LifeMode

Oh lighten up. I have to joke to keep my sanity during this joke of an election cycle. It was a study and of course I took it with a block of salt.

I'm a laid back person. More of a reaction to Cher being serious about the Hitler comparison.

I cannot even comment as this has gotten so dumb.

a reply to: LifeMode

I'll admit my joke was distasteful. But at this point I forgot what tasteful is given the current state of affairs.

only 5 stars for the OP?....oh that's right....it's a post bashing trump for putting political donations into his own pocket, and not about that "evil and corrupt Hillary".....so...no big deal.

originally posted by: jimmyx
only 5 stars for the OP?....oh that's right....it's a post bashing trump for putting political donations into his own pocket, and not about that "evil and corrupt Hillary".....so...no big deal.

Post that has nothing to do with being President or running for President. Can't even be considered a "Scandal" in the weakest term.

Trump supporters are used to these lame attempts.

a reply to: Indigo5
Thats done quite often,he donates the books as I remember books aren't made for free,quite a difference if you are trying to put your candidate in a better light,,cause that will never happen

originally posted by: matafuchs
I cannot even comment as this has gotten so dumb.

Of course it is dumb.

He could have had the publisher ship him as many copies as he liked at wholesale...

But once it was donors money he was spending, why not walk into Barnes and Noble and buy 5,000 copies of his own book at retail..that way he gets the Royalties and he can falsely boost his sales numbers.

It is dumb...and illegal.
Which makes Trump both Stupid and Corrupt.

All this apart from the Millions he has paid his Marlago resort thus far and charging the campaign for empty floors in Trump Tower..It just goes on and on...he is a con-artist and not even sophisticated one.

Ok, so if he had bought another book would it be ok?