Political committees have spent $931,129 at Trump properties since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, according to CREW’s analysis of FEC filings. The payday for the Trump Organization comes thanks to spending by a broad range of Republican political groups: the RNC led the spending with $737,248, with 14 state parties and 54 sitting House Republicans also making payments. These totals don’t include funds spent by dark money groups and other entities that don’t have to report to the FEC. The spending, which included payments for a number of high-profile political events, is yet another sign of the enmeshment of Trump’s personal financial interests and national political affairs, and of Republicans’ continued willingness to turn a blind eye to it. 

A staggering $754,308—over 80%—of the total came from Republican Party groups like the RNC, state parties and the NRCC. The pro-Trump super PAC MAGA, Inc. spent $42,877 to rent Trump properties for political events that raised tens of millions of dollars, including Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s D.C.-area golf club. 

Fifty-four House members spent a total of $123,579 through campaigns, leadership PACs and joint fundraising committees. Reps. Dan Meuser and Steve Scalise spent the most, at $30,106 and $21,244, respectively. Rep. Jason Smith spent the third largest sum at $11,851.

Members of Congress have a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight over the executive branch and the president. Yet, Republicans’ enthusiasm for pouring money into Trump’s businesses over the course of his two terms in office demonstrates not just their embrace of one of the central, defining transgressions of his time in office—his use of the presidency for his own financial gain—but also their abdication of their responsibility to hold him accountable for his corruption. 

The overwhelming number of House Republicans who have spent money at Trump properties already this term–a quarter of their 219-member caucus–is both a chilling testament to their embrace of Trump’s conflicts of interest, and a glaring contrast to the start of Trump’s first term. From Trump’s 2017 inauguration through July of that year, only 13 House Republicans’ committees recorded spending at Trump properties, for a total of $45,001 (this number doesn’t account for inflation or rate changes by the Trump Organization). 

This term, Trump himself has spent over a third of his days in office visiting his properties, making over 100 visits. Trump’s mixing of his personal financial interests with the presidency sends a powerful signal that access to Trump is for sale through his businesses. 

Before Trump announced his first 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. Now party leaders have embraced the merging of their interests with Trump’s bottom line: the RNC regularly spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to host events at Trump properties, including two such events since January.

Spending this year also bears a stark contrast to Trump’s first administration: in the same period of 2017, political groups spent only $213,457. The RNC was the largest spender in both periods, but their 2017 spending only reached $125,261. Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel accounted for more than 80 percent of political spending and over half of House spending at his properties during that period. When that property came under new ownership in 2022, business from GOP political groups dried up. None of the 2017 spending was at Trump’s Florida properties, but this term, 96 percent of political spending was paid to those properties, with House members and their PACs racking up $120,134 there. 

Of course, political spending at Trump’s properties is just one small part of Trump’s massive conflicts of interest. Trump has not only broken with tradition and failed to divest from his businesses both terms, but this term is continuing to expand his international developments, with 21 new properties in development. Trump’s other financial dealings like the launch of a new cell phone service, a social media company and crypto assets reportedly worth up to a billion dollars also pose additional conflicts of interest. 

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