GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is ramping up his staff count and expanding his campaign HQ with two full floors at Trump Tower, but some are raising questions on The Donald’s logistics and financing.
In July, Trump had 172 employees and consultants on payroll—a fraction of the 705 his opponent, Hillary Clinton, has—but his campaign claims that it's working on “major growth” as Election Day approaches, the Washington Post reports.
What’s causing some controversy, is that the campaign’s rent jumped to $170k last month, a steep increase from June’s $111k and May’s $73k. In March, despite having more employees and consultants on payroll, Trump’s campaign only paid $35k for rent and prided itself on its frugal operations.
In addition, the campaign has paid more than $7.7M to Trump companies or family members to cover expenses. The most recent payday was last month, when several Trump-owned companies were reimbursed $773k. Among these was TAG Air, which received $495k and owns Trump's private planes—including his personal Boeing 757, which burns $10k in fuel every hour.
Some have questioned whether Trump is raising rents because the bulk of his campaign funding now comes from outside donors, but aides were quick to point out that the real estate mogul contributed $2M of his own funds to the campaign in July.
Overall, The Donald has donated or loaned more than $52M of his own cash to his presidential bid. [WaPo]
