RNC gift bags included kitschy “Make America Great Again!” items and a copy of Trump’s recent book, Crippled America: How To Make America Great Again.
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Donald Trump’s campaign used its own funds to buy more copies of his book than the rest of the world did in the second week of May.
The purchase has invited questions as to whether the campaign diverted the money to the mogul’s pockets, while artificially boosting his sales numbers.
Federal campagn law says that, “campaign spending must not “result in the conversion of campaign funds to the personal use of the candidate or any other person”.
“That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use”, he added.
According to his July fundraising report filed to the Federal Elections Commission, Trump has spent at least $7.7 million of his campaign funds toward Trump-owned companies, as well as to his children, who have been a staple on the campaign, Vice reported.
Apart from the possibility that Trump was possibly trying to sneak away with some extra royalty cash, there’s also a chance that the books were bought in bulk from Barnes and Noble so that the book could get on the New York Times best-seller list.
A Trump aide, meanwhile, said the books were purchased as part of “giving at the [Republican National] Convention, which we have to do”.
The Trump campaign did not respond on the record to inquiries about this matter.
Trailing Hillary Clinton badly in the polls, it’s possible that Trump’s campaign will now find itself on the receiving end of attacks from the Democratic nominee over his campaign expenses.
Neither the Trump campaign nor the publisher would comment if royalties were indeed paid.
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The campaign’s choice to buy Crippled America at Barnes and Noble instead of straight from the publisher is unusual.
