A watchdog group claimed this week that President Donald Trump is profiting off of his own reelection campaign in a “wildly corrupt” way.
The details were revealed in a report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
CREW staff first noticed “a mysterious spike in the price of available rooms at Trump’s DC hotel for a Saturday night in December.”
“The minimum cost was 13 times the average, but we couldn’t identify a reason for the spike, until photos surfaced of the Trump Victory Committee’s winter retreat at Trump’s Hotel on that exact night, which appears to have sold out much of the venue,” CREW explained.
The report continued:
There’s no question that political spending like the Trump Victory Committee fundraiser has helped make Trump’s DC Hotel one of the few bright spots in his financial portfolio, despite it’s high vacancy rate. CREW has tracked 72 political events held at Trump properties during the Trump presidency, 40 of which have been held at his DC hotel. Trump Victory has been a particularly loyal customer for the DC hotel, hosting fundraisers in June 2017, September 2018, May 2019, and June 2019. The Center for Responsive Politics found that all the political spending at the hotel is paying off, totalling nearly $20 million since the 2016 election cycle.
CREW concluded by calling the scheme to profit off of the president’s reelection “wildly corrupt.”
“Running for president typically involves raising vast sums of money for the campaign, but to be personally making millions off of a reelection effort is both unprecedented, and wildly corrupt,” the report noted. “President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the presidency has cost him business. The repeated rate jumps at his hotel surrounding political events suggest that, at least for his DC property, this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
