'Loyalty to the party’s leader': GOP candidates are spending millions at Trump’s businesses

Despite having a mountain of legal bills, former President Donald Trump has increased his net worth in 2024. Forbes, in July, estimated that he had a net worth of $6.6 billion, a figure that includes his publicly traded company Trump Media & Technology Group as well as a variety of properties and physical assets.

In an article published on August 23, CNN reporters Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman and Nelli Black examine the profits that Trump's businesses are making from Republican campaigns.

Candidates who have been spending the most money at Trump's businesses in 2024, they report, include two U.S. Senate candidates: Bennie Moreno in Ohio and Kari Lake in Arizona.

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"In the first half of 2024," Tolan, Chapman and Black explain, "federal campaigns and PACs have spent nearly $3.2 million on Trump businesses, more than 80 percent of which came from Trump's own campaign and associated groups. The biggest chunk — about $1.9 million — was spent by Trump's campaign and fundraising committees on a Trump-owned company that operates his jet."

The reporters add, "In total, campaigns and committees have spent more than $1 million at Mar-a-Lago so far this year, and about $200,000 at other Trump hotels and resorts."

According to Daniel Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center, all this spending at Trump-owned businesses reflects his total domination of the GOP.

Weiner told CNN, "He's clearly now in complete control of the Republican Party. Patronizing his businesses has become one of the accepted ways that candidates and public officials express their loyalty to the party’s leader."

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Read CNN's full report at this link.