'Shameless Self-Dealing': Report Shows President's Businesses Earned Millions From Spending by Trump Campaign

A new report out Monday details how President Donald Trump has financially benefited from his presidency, with federal agencies and political groups—including his own campaign—giving millions to the business empire from which he refuses to divest.

The Art of the (Self) Deal: Political and Taxpayer Spending at Trump’s Properties, published by the watchdog group Public Citizen, reveals that about 90 percent of the revenue, or $13.2 million, has come from Trump’s own campaign—meaning his donors have directly boosted the president’s profits.

“Donald Trump has degraded the presidency in countless ways,” declared Alan Zibel, the report’s author and research director of Public Citizen’s Corporate Presidency Project. “One of the most shocking is his shameless self-dealing, as exemplified by the continued spending of campaign money and taxpayer dollars to Trump’s own businesses, which he refused to fully divest.”

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has doled out more than $717,000, while Trump Victory, a joint committee by Trump’s campaign and the RNC, has spent nearly $595,000, according to public records. Zibel predicts that this spending trend will likely continue as the president ramps up his 2020 re-election campaign.