In the six months since the 2024 election, political spending at Trump properties reported to the FEC reached $676,457, including payments by more than fifty sitting House Republicans. The Republican National Committee was the top spender, accounting for more than half of the total, at $372,215. All House campaigns totaled over $110,000, and Trump’s own political machine spent almost $140,000. These totals don’t include funds spent by dark money groups and some other entities that don’t have to report to the FEC. 

Of the $139,557 spent by Trump-aligned organizations, a whopping $119,249 has come from Never Surrender, Inc.—the leadership PAC that Trump’s principal campaign committee was converted into after the election. Among the 52 House campaigns, two far outstripped the rest of the pack: Reps. Dan Meuser and Steve Scalise, who spent $25,403 and $21,244, respectively. Rep. Jason Smith spent the third largest sum: $11,851.

This trend of post-election spending suggests an eagerness by Trump’s political allies to pay fealty to the president and demonstrates that Trump’s political allies not only accept his financial conflicts of interest, but embrace them. This comes as no surprise—during both his administrations and in the interim, Trump has made his properties centers of power and influence. Trump’s 75 visits to his properties since his second inauguration have added to an already staggering 547 visits during his first term, sending a clear message to interested parties that spending money at his properties remains a key way to ingratiate themselves with him. 

Politicians have long justified their patronage of Trump properties as free-market choices. But as was powerfully demonstrated after the sale of Trump’s D.C. hotel, these decisions seem to be driven by the Trump brand—once the D.C. property was under new ownership, business from GOP political groups dried up. Historical numbers also bear this out: before Trump announced his presidential campaign, political committees had never spent more than $100,000 total at Trump properties in any year, going back at least as far as 2002.

In the six-month period after the 2016 election, political entities spent $565,255 at Trump properties (this number doesn’t account for inflation or rate changes by the Trump Organization). Over that period, only ten House-aligned committees reported spending at Trump properties, totaling $28,854. 

The location of the spending has also shifted notably. Over a third of the spending during the 2016-2017 period was at Trump’s D.C. hotel, and none of the House committee payments were to Florida properties. Now, with the D.C. hotel sold and business still booming elsewhere, over 95% of House committee spending was at Florida properties—$58,569 at Trump National Doral and $41,858 at Mar-a-Lago.

Political spending at Trump properties is one of the many ways Donald Trump profits off the presidency, and these conflicts of interest have been joined by myriad new issues since his return to office. Trump seems to find new norms to shatter daily, from financial deals with foreign governments, to promoting and profiting from crypto-currency, to hawking that currency for personal access—and spending by his Republican allies suggests they are more than happy to bless the arrangement. 

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