Late last year, former President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of car dealership owner Bernie Moreno for Ohio’s Senate seat – elevating an untested candidate who’d never held public office over several other more prominent Republicans.
Two days later, Moreno’s campaign spent about $17,000 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and then followed up by spending an additional $79,000 the next month – making him one of the Florida club’s top political spenders.
He wasn’t alone. With glitzy Mar-a-Lago fundraisers, stays at Trump’s hotels, and flights on the former president’s private jet, Republican candidates and political groups are on track to spend more on Trump’s businesses this year than any year since 2016, according to a CNN analysis of federal campaign finance data.
Trump himself has been the biggest spender, both this year and over the last decade. Between his three presidential campaigns, Trump and associated political groups have funneled more than $28 million in campaign donations to his businesses – helping convert the enthusiasm of his political supporters into personal profit.
Other Republicans have followed suit, spending millions at Trump’s properties in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the former president and signal their allegiance to him to GOP voters.
Some of the candidates who’ve spent the most money on Trump businesses in recent years have been new politicians who won the former president’s endorsement despite a lack of past electoral experience or success, including Moreno, former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake.
In the first half of 2024, federal campaigns and PACs have spent nearly $3.2 million on Trump businesses, more than 80% 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.
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.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said that “committees are paying the fair market rate for all venues and services” provided by Trump businesses.
The dynamic of candidates shelling out thousands on Trump’s businesses while vying for his endorsement – which can make or break Republican campaigns – is an example of how politics has boosted his businesses’ bottom line. And the former president’s influence helps explain why some candidates are traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to show up at a Trump hotel or resort, campaign finance experts said.
“He’s clearly now in complete control of the Republican Party,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program. “Patronizing his businesses has become one of the accepted ways that candidates and public officials express their loyalty to the party’s leader.”
Endorsees spending big
CNN analyzed Federal Election Commission data on more than 12 million campaign expenditures since 2011, and identified those that went to a variety of Trump-associated businesses, including Mar-a-Lago, his hotels and resorts, and the company tied to his jet.
About 150 congressional candidates have reported spending campaign funds at Trump businesses, including some Democrats in the years before his first presidential bid. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez’s campaign spent several thousand dollars at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia in 2012, and the campaign of Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden, spent about $700 at the Trump International Resort in Florida in 2014.
But since Trump famously descended his golden escalator in 2015, every congressional candidate whose campaign has reported spending money at his businesses has been a Republican, the FEC data shows.
Most of them have received an endorsement from Trump at some point in their political careers. And some of the biggest spenders are politicians who have never held elected office but received key early endorsements from the former president that helped their campaigns win or avoid competitive primaries.
Moreno, the Ohio Senate candidate, is a clear example. A businessman who owns a host of car dealerships in the Cleveland area, Moreno originally ran for Senate in 2022, before dropping out after a conversation with Trump and eventually supporting now-vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
In April 2023, as Moreno prepared to run for the Senate again, he reported two payments at Mar-a-Lago totaling about $13,000 for “event catering.” The same day one of those payments was made, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had heard Moreno, who he called a “highly respected businessman,” was “thinking of running for the Senate,” and that he “would not be easy to be beat.” Moreno posted a screenshot of the missive on Twitter with a “Thank you sir!” and announced his campaign days later.
Trump endorsed Moreno on December 19. On December 21, Moreno reported spending nearly $17,000 more at Mar-a-Lago. He spent another $80,000 there in January, when his campaign held a fundraiser at the resort that raised about $350,000 in donations. At the event, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., declared that “God has chosen” Moreno, and called him “an unbelievable patriot who has achieved so much,” social media video shows.
Moreno won a competitive primary election in March, defeating the sitting Republican secretary of state and a state legislator. Before the Trump endorsement, it was a close race, said David B. Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Akron.
“The Trump endorsement meant everything,” Cohen said. “It was the whole ball game.”
Now, Moreno is the GOP nominee in one of the nation’s closest Senate races. Reagan McCarthy, a Moreno spokesperson, said in an email that “Mar-a-Lago is a beautiful property and we held two of our most successful fundraisers of the cycle there.”
The congressional candidate whose campaign spent the most at Trump businesses over the last decade is Herschel Walker, the former football star who lost a close race for a Georgia Senate seat in 2022. Walker’s campaign spent a total of nearly $215,000 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and his Las Vegas hotel.
An early endorsement from Trump helped Walker, who had never before run for office, coast to victory in the GOP primary. But his campaign was plagued by scandals, including allegations of domestic abuse as well as claims that Walker had paid for abortions for previous girlfriends, which he denied.
Scott Paradise, Walker’s campaign manager, said in an email that events his team held at Trump properties raised more than a million dollars, and were “by far our two biggest fundraisers of the entire campaign.”
“It was a great return on investment,” he said.
More recently, one of Mar-a-Lago’s top political spenders has been Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, whose campaign dropped more than $100,000 there so far this year. Most of that spending came in April, when Lake held a fundraiser at the resort that raised $1 million, according to Axios.
While Lake’s campaign reported spending about $71,000 at Mar-a-Lago for “facility rental/catering services,” it also reported $32,000 for “lodging” at the resort on the day of the fundraiser and the two days after – suggesting that the campaign shelled out tens of thousands of dollars so Lake or her staffers could stay at Trump’s resort.
Arizona campaign finance data shows that during her 2022 race for governor, Lake’s campaign spent an additional $118,000 at Mar-a-Lago, making her one of the top political spenders that year as well.
Late last month, Lake won her Senate primary with about 55% of the vote after scoring Trump’s endorsement – which came despite concerns among some Republicans that her election denial rhetoric could alienate swing voters in another of this year’s marquee Senate races.
But her frequent appearances at Mar-a-Lago didn’t necessarily endear her to Trump: The Washington Post reported that Trump was annoyed that Lake was showing up at his Florida resort too often, and encouraged her to get back to the campaign trail across the country in Arizona.
A Lake campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Several of the other federal candidates who spent the most at Mar-a-Lago over the last decade were right-wing congressional hopefuls who won Trump’s endorsement but lost at the ballot box in 2022: J.R. Majewski of Ohio, John Gibbs of Michigan and Vernon Jones of Georgia.
There’s no evidence that Trump is specifically choosing to endorse candidates because they’re spending money at his businesses. But some experts say the overlap between Mar-a-Lago money and Trump backing should raise eyebrows.
“It’s problematic if he’s giving endorsements because of people spending money at his properties,” said Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “We don’t know whether he’s doing that because he has an agreement – an explicit quid pro quo – or he’s just been influenced to give an endorsement because of their spending money.”
Leavitt, the Trump spokesperson, said that any allegations of quid pro quo related to political spending at Trump businesses are “false and politically motivated to bolster an old and tired narrative.”
Politics boosting Trump’s bottom line
Still, the biggest political spender at Trump businesses is the same guy whose name is on the gold-plated signs.
Since his first bid for president, Trump’s principal campaign committee and associated PACs and Super PACs have spent more than $28 million on his businesses.
But while political spending at Mar-a-Lago has attracted the most attention, the bulk of Trump’s campaign payments to his own businesses has gone to a lower-profile firm. His campaign and associated committees have spent more than $14 million on air travel from TAG Air, Inc., which operates Trump’s Boeing 757 jet – nicknamed “Trump Force One” – and other aircraft.
Trump’s latest financial disclosure statement, which was released last week, show that he owns TAG Air through another LLC and a trust. The company is listed as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, and Trump reported earning $4.4 million in income from it. He also reported earning $56.9 million from Mar-a-Lago.
So far, about 5 percent of the total disbursements from Trump’s 2024 campaign committee have gone to his own businesses. That’s a larger percentage than for his 2016 or 2020 campaign committees – although that may be in part because overall campaign spending will ramp up ahead of the election.
It’s not illegal for candidates to spend campaign funds at their own businesses, provided that the businesses are charging them a fair market rate, said Weiner, the Brennan Center expert. But he noted that donors may not realize some of their contributions are indirectly going into Trump’s pockets.
“They want to help his ticket win, and they want to express their support,” Weiner said. “To the extent that a campaign is used in part to prop up his businesses – that’s a concern.”
Beyond PACs associated with Trump’s campaign, some other GOP groups are spending less than they were in past election cycles. The Republican National Committee spent a total of more than $2 million at Trump hotels and resorts between 2016 and 2022. But it didn’t report any spending in 2023, and only a single $115.54 payment to “Trump Hotels” so far this year – despite concerns among some that Lara Trump could try to direct money to her father-in-law’s companies after her elevation to RNC co-chair in March.
Similarly, the Senate Leadership Fund and the National Republican Congressional Committee spent tens of thousands of dollars at Trump properties in past election cycles but haven’t reported any spending there since 2020.
The campaign spending at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties parallels other business ventures Trump has been involved in since he left the White House to earn money from his political supporters – including selling digital trading cards, promoting Trump-branded sneakers and hawking a $59.99 Bible.
Meanwhile, the growing mix of politics and business has turned off some longtime patrons of Trump resorts who aren’t MAGA devotees.
Mar-a-Lago, a century-old resort in one of Florida’s toniest areas, was once one of the first private clubs in the area to welcome Black or Jewish members. Between the gorgeous scenery and more diverse clientele, it was a great place for a party, remembered Laurence Leamer, who wrote a book on Trump’s ties to the club.
But as Trump transformed American politics over the last decade, Mar-a-Lago has also dramatically changed, Leamer said – with classy society dinners and balls increasingly replaced by fundraisers and events catering to conservatives.
People are there because “they want to get his ear,” Leamer said. “It’s just not fun anymore. It’s political.”
CNN’s Steve Contorno, Winter Hawk, Kyung Lah, Alex Leeds Matthews and Alayna Treene contributed reporting.
