Despite the fact that Donald Trump is barely over the 100-day mark of his first – and, hopefully, only – term as president, he’s already reportedly profiting from his re-election bid.
For those keeping track, the 2020Â election campaign is still three years away.
According to The Huffington Post, though, “Trump’s office building has received $274,000 in rent over the first three months of this year for an election more than three years away.”
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President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has sent $274,000 in rent to Trump’s office building during the first three months of this year, even though fewer than two dozen employees are on the payroll for an election more than three years away.
That total works out to a monthly average of $91,000, which is more than half of what Trump’s campaign was paying Trump Tower each month at the height of the presidential race last year.
It’s absurdly early to be putting so much money toward expenses related to his re-election campaign, especially when his presidency has been such an epic dumpster fire so far. It’s also another example of how Trump is using his position as president – and a presidential candidate – to profit.
This isn’t new, though.
Last year, The Huffington Post reported that Trump jacked up Trump Tower’s rent last year when he ditched his commitment to “self-fund” his campaign, though that was always a joke to begin with.
“Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign,” the report noted.
As president, Trump is doing his best to follow the same blueprint. In his tax “plan” released last week, the president would stand to gain tens millions of dollars each year.
While Trump has been a failure by nearly every measure during his first three months in office, he has mastered the art of using his position to turn a personal profit – all while screwing the lower- and middle-income voters who helped elect him last year.
With 2020 three years away, it appears there is never a time too soon for Trump to start profiting off a presidential campaign.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
