Trump campaign plans $140 million ad buy

USA taxpayers have paid about $1.6 million for the Secret Service to fly with Trump on his private plane to and from campaign events, according to FEC documents-which is pretty normal, except for the fact that the Republican candidate owns the company operating the plane. But because TAG Air, Inc., Trump’s own company, runs his jet, the government money is effectively plopping right back into Trump’s bank account.

The Secret Service has reimbursed Hillary Clinton’s campaign $2.6 million for travel as well, according to Politico, but she has relied primarily on a private company called Executive Fliteways.

It was also revealed last week that the Trump campaign has spent some $8.2 million on Trump-owned businesses throughout the campaign.

“Most wealthy candidates separate their businesses from their campaign organizations, and that’s partly because their companies are either publicly owned or owned by multiple people”, GOP election lawyer Jason Torchinsky told Politico.

In a statement responding to Politico’s findings, the Trump campaign said the alleged billionaire, whose tax returns have still not been made public, “has largely self-funded his campaign and continues to make significant contributions which far exceed the amounts the campaign is required to pay”.

Although Trump appears to not be violating laws on this front, candidates typically refrain from sending campaign business their own way either because their businesses aren’t structured in a way that would allow them to do so, or out of concern of appearing to be padding their own businesses with campaign donations.

Trump, who famously boasted in 2000 that he could be the first person to turn a profit on a presidential campaign, has lately been in the business of denying that this is exactly what he is doing. Indeed, Trump has invested $54 million of his own money into the campaign.