Donald Trump likes to give his opponents derogatory nicknames – Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco, Lyin’ Ted and so on. For the general election, he has come up with Crooked Hillary.
His FEC filing has disclosed how ironic this is.
Tthere’s crookedness going on all right, but it’s in Trump’s campaign, not Hillary’s.
As AlterNet’s Elizabeth Preza observes;
Amazingly, as much as 20 percent of the Trump campaign’s May expenses—over $6 million—went to Trump-owned businesses or to his children.
Why am I not amazed?
And why don’t I feel shocked when I read that Trump’s campaign paid thousands to an “apparently fictitional” ad agency with a name borrowed from the Mad Men TV series?
It’s happened so often before – especially in Republican campaigns.
On her MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow argued that the Trump campaign is nothing but a “book tour.”
She recalled that Newt Gingrich did much the same thing as Trump is doing. Newt ran for president to promote his books and other merchandise. And he built a lucrative media business from the public’s gullibility.
Ben Carson’s campaign was a less grandiose version of the same con. He sold a lot of books. And he dispersed thousands of campaign dollars among his relatives in “consulting fees,” squandering thousands more at fancy restaurants and luxury hotels.
But Trump trumps them all.
He has the advantage of being a natural born liar. You know he’s lying because his lips are moving. Remember the song and dance about raising funds for veterans and personally contributing a million dollars? He finally had to put up or shut up that time – after the media cornered him.
Now it turns out he lied about self financing his primary campaign. He claims he contributed $55 million but it turns out he didn’t give the campaign a dime. According to the FEC filing, he lent his campaign about $46 million – much of it goods and services from his own companies and consulting fees to his own children..
He is even paying himself to fly his own plane.
As Rachel pointed out, anyone planning to send Trump a campaign contribution should pause to reflect on the fact that it could go to repay him for the “loans” he’s put up so far.
It’s no wonder the deep-pocket donors are hiding their check books. They understand how financing schemes work, and they know this one is a con.
Click for the AlterNet article.
