title:  Trump’s Campaign Finance Filings Reveal Millions In Payments…To His Own Businesses
text: There s no question that Donald Trump is running a (ahem) unique campaign. It s so unique that he s self-funded it into being broke. His FEC filings, through May 31 of this year, reveal an awful lot more than that, though. The campaign has paid millions to his own businesses and property, including his ridiculously luxurious plane, and Mar-a-Lago, his personal estate in Florida.Derek Willis, a journalist at ProPublica, tweeted out a spreadsheet that ProPublica put together of all campaign disbursements to things with  Trump  in the name. In total, the campaign has paid nearly $1.4 million to Trump s own businesses since he launched it last year:Recipients of payments from Trump campaign with  Trump  in name, through May 31. Doesn t include Mar-a-Lago/planes. pic.twitter.com/JF6skaWYGF  Derek Willis (@derekwillis) June 21, 2016At first, that doesn t sound like a lot. Maybe Trump is actually reining himself in? That s less than five percent of his total campaign expenditures. But this is King Donald, and that s not nearly everything. The campaign has also spent $423,371 for the use of Mar-a-Lago, which is a personal residence, and roughly $5 million to Tag Air, Inc. the company that operates his private Boeing 757 with the solid gold seatbelt buckles for the use of his plane.That brings the total up to roughly $6.8 million that Trump s campaign has paid to him for one thing or another, and that s more than 10 percent of the $63 million that his campaign has spent since he formally entered the race last year.How does he get away with that? Is it even legal?Back in January, the Miami Herald ran a piece on these same expenditures. At that time, Trump had paid nearly one out of every three campaign dollars to something he owned. This is actually legal in fact, federal election law requires campaigns to pay fair market for goods and services rendered, even if they come from a candidate s own businesses but the sheer amount that Trump has managed to send to himself through loopholes in campaign finance law, is very unusual.In short, he knew that election law requires his campaign to pay for everything, otherwise it counts as an undocumented campaign contribution. So, he probably figured, why not use his own businesses as much as possible? Then he can funnel money to himself, and there s nothing anybody can do about it because it s perfectly legal.It s also more than a little suspicious, because, as the headline of the Miami Herald s story notes, Trump has  perfected the art of the campaign expense,  in such a way that he personally profits, even if he ultimately isn t elected.But wait! If it s not illegal, why is it suspicious? Quite simply, if you want to know how a presidential candidate is going to run the country, look at how they run their campaign. Trump won t just run the country like a business; he ll very likely find ways to use the Office of the President to line his own pockets while he holds that position.In the end, Trump only cares about Trump, and his campaign finance records prove it better than anything else he s done.Featured image by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images