Donald Trump's political action committee spent $375,000 to rent office space in Trump Tower — even though the committee have no presence in New York, HuffPost reported Friday.
"It's a huge scam," said one former aide. "I can't believe his base lets him get away with it."
In 2021, Trump's Make America Great Again PAC spent $37,541.67 a month for ten months renting space in the Trump Organization building in Manhattan, according to a HuffPost analysis of campaign finance filings.
"The ex-aide's assertion was confirmed by a Trump Tower employee who screens traffic to offices above the floors that are open to visitors," HuffPost reported. "When asked for permission to visit Trump's political office recently, the employee told HuffPost that Save America and its related entities did not have offices there. 'It's all being run out of Florida,' he said, declining to give his name."
Trump's campaign itself also rented unused space in Trump Tower.
"That was the same monthly amount his campaign had spent there from mid-2017 through the end of 2020, when his reelection campaign was actually based in northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington," HuffPost reported. "In all those months, there was at most one person who periodically visited the 7,000-square-foot office in Trump Tower, the former aide said. But Trump insisted on having the campaign continue renting there ― as it had during the 2016 election ― because the building was having trouble finding tenants, he said."
In 2016, Trump reportedly increased the rent his campaign was paying at Trump Tower by five times after donors began footing the bill.
HuffPost noted "the $375,417 Trump spent for the unused office space is more than the $350,500 that his Save America committee donated last year to Republican candidates running for office, which is ostensibly Trump's purpose for raising money for his committees."
Read the full report.
