Trump campaign doubles spending, not ground game
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va.
WASHINGTON >> Donald Trump’s campaign expenses more than doubled last month, even as the Republican presidential nominee held his payroll to about 70 employees, aired zero television advertisements and undertook no significant operational buildout across the country.
Instead, about half of the campaign’s $18.5 million in spending was vacuumed up by Giles-Parscale, a web design and marketing firm new to national politics, Federal Election Commission filings show. It’s a crossover vendor from Trump’s real estate organization.
The campaign paid Giles-Parscale $8.4 million in July, about twice what the San Antonio firm had collected from it over the course of the preceding year. Brad Parscale, the president, is the campaign’s director of digital marketing.
The big expense came as Trump put a new emphasis on online fundraising, after paying for his primary run mostly out of his own pocket.
Millions more went to air travel. The campaign paid about $2 million for private jets other than Trump’s own TAG Air, which also collected $500,000.
Some of Trump’s consultants are also mysteriously well-paid.
Chess Bedsole, the campaign’s Alabama state director, was paid $64,000 last month for field consulting. His last campaign payment was for $15,000 in December.
Yet the campaign’s payroll remained thin, and there did not appear to be much new in the way of office leases across the country, including in critical battleground states such as Ohio.
Trump has relied heavily on the Republican National Committee for conventional campaign infrastructure. And he’s boasted of holding the line on his campaign spending. But he’s running critically low on time to build an operation that can compete with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In addition to being ahead of Trump in polls in key states, Clinton has maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. Trump put out his first ads days ago, spending $5 million to air them in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Her campaign spent $38 million in July, about double his spending.
Clinton can afford to spend more than Trump, the July campaign finance reports show. Her campaign raised $52 million while his brought in $37 million for the month, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself.
The candidates also raise money for their parties, enabling them to ask for contributions far higher than the $2,700-per-donor limit to the campaigns. Overall in July, Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic partners, while Trump raised $80 million for the campaign and Republican groups.
Trump did bring aboard some new campaign consultants in July.
He paid $100,000 to Cambridge Analytica, a deep-dive data firm that did business with GOP opponent Ted Cruz. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who contributed $2 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee in July, is an investor in Cambridge.
The Trump filings also show some old ties.
Two weeks after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign cut his firm, Green Monster Consulting, another $20,000 check. That’s about the same amount it had paid him each month while he was running the campaign.
At the time of the latest payment, Lewandowski was already on the payroll of CNN, where he is a political contributor.
The campaign also paid Trump Organization employee Meredith McIver, who has worked as a Trump ghostwriter over the years. She took credit — and then blame— for writing Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention that included similar lines from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
The campaign valued McIver’s time, accounted for as payroll from the Trump Organization, at $356.01.
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Follow Julie Bykowicz and Chad Day on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bykowicz and https://twitter.com/ChadSDay
27 responses to “Trump campaign doubles spending, not ground game”
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Trump fans, more evidence that Trump makes head-shaking business decisions when he finds himself in a leadership position.
It’s been said countless times that he’s a marketing guy, no one will dispute that. He is NOT a CEO or president type. Looks almost like he’s not even trying to win.
I think he’s bored with the whole running thing, and tired of being down in the polls. Don’t worry, fan boys, he’ll move on to another interesting reality show or maybe get into the news media business with members of his staff. The whole world, including Donald, will be glad when that day comes.
This further shows that Mr. Trump is very fortunate that he had a wealthy father to finance him. This type of incompetence also helps to explain his multiple bankruptcies.
Folks doing work for the campaign must be confident that Mr. Trump won’t stiff them like he has so many hundreds of times before.
Yes, bankruptcies work for a selfish businessman who takes his big cut and walks away, leaving a mess for others (you, me, and the government) to absorb. This model will NOT work to fix our country’s economic problems. Would you waste your vote on a used car salesman who doesn’t know anything about finance and economics? Right.
Trump will eventually walk away. Let’s hope it’s sooner than later.
Trump is a hot mess. The bigger problem is the losers who support him. He’s convincing them that the election isn’t legitimate if he doesn’t win. Who knows how they’ll react?
He’s taking advantage of imbeciles. It’s disgraceful.
The more you two mynah birds yap the sweeter Trumps victory will be.
I hope you guys picked up some cans and bottles. She keeps sliding in the polls, the poop is getting deeper. She needs more money. Pretty soon she’s going to owe her life to the special interests if not already. Trump is like Ali. Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Crooked Hillary is like Forman in Zaire. Rope a Dope. November 8th round knock out.
Apeman and Krazy Kkastri are up early. Minor birds. Give it a rest. You guys remind of mynah birds. You guys need help.
Last week it was double digits, this week it’s one. Trumps ground game is his 2-3 rallies a day, playing to packed houses. Hillary’s rallies are in coffee shops or school gymnauseas with cameras positioned to hide the dismal turnout. Crooked Hillary’s strategy is attack ads and media control to warp people’s minds with her filth. Her democrat Party is as corrupt as the day is long. She campaigns 1 day and takes 3 days off. How the heck is she going to run the Country? And with who? Bill?.
You guys make me laugh. They got homeless tents on sale at City Mill.
Trump is a psychotic who appeals to racists, white supremacists and imbeciles.
He will never be President.
The Donald is a successful business man who is clearly running his campaign as such. Trump’s Lean Machine versus hiLIARY’s bloated JV team….whomever wins will dictate the National Debt’s future.
TRUMP PENCE 2016…”Make America Great Again”
Worth repeating: Bankruptcies work for a selfish businessman who takes his big cut and walks away, leaving a mess for others to absorb. This model will NOT work to fix our country’s economic problems.
Trump is completely ignorant about finance and economics. Any yet, he controls the situation blindly, won’t listen to his advisors. Same head-shaking way he runs all his businesses—until he walks away (or is booted out).
Can you comprehend why his being a “successful businessman” will not translate to economic recovery?
Keonigohan, if crooked Hillary is going to run the economy like her campaign if by some fluke she gets elected she’ll run our national debt to 30 trillion in one year. We’ll have 20 million immigrants, 80% unemployment, 50% on welfare, crime on the streets, shopping centers blown up, Soros and the blacks protesting, white cops targeted. Anarchy.
And it’s Myna birds.
As if it was not already painfully obvious, this is not going to end well for Trump. Along those lines, recently revealed info and data about his finances can only be described in two terms: very murky and laden with extreme debt.
On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.
But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump’s real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times’s inquiry also found that Mr. Trump’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.
For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, after it paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.
Real estate projects often involve complex ownership and mortgage structures. And given Mr. Trump’s long real estate career in the United States and abroad, as well as his claim that his personal wealth exceeds $10 billion, it is safe to say that no previous major party presidential nominee has had finances nearly as complicated.
As president, Mr. Trump would have substantial sway over monetary and tax policy, as well as the power to make appointments that would directly affect his own financial empire. He would also wield influence over legislative issues that could have a significant impact on his net worth, and would have official dealings with countries in which he has business interests.
Yet The Times’s examination underscored how much of Mr. Trump’s business remains shrouded in mystery. He has declined to disclose his tax returns or allow an independent valuation of his assets.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Trump submitted a 104-page federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his, and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.
Mr. Trump at the Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office building in Washington, which is nearing completion. The federal government, which owns the land, gave a 60-year lease to a limited liability company controlled by Mr. Trump and members of his family. In return, the government receives at least $3 million a year. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times.
Beyond finding that companies owned by Mr. Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders, including those that hold the loan on the Avenue of the Americas building. If those loans were to go into default, Mr. Trump would not be held liable, the Trump Organization said. The value of his investments, however, would certainly sink.
Cricket crew, big shout out…………buahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhah!!!!!!!
Wassup SA?
ugust 21, 2016
Colin Powell Goes under the Clinton Bus
By Jonathan F. Keiler
To the list of victims, common folks, and politicians left in the wake of that runaway bus of crime and corruption known as Clinton, add one more — former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Leaks emerging from the Congressional acquisition of the heavily redacted FBI interview with Hillary Clinton that took place in July, indicate that part of the discussion with Democrat nominee centered on Clinton’s claim that she set up her private email server on the recommendation of Powell.
This account of the origins of the server is in line with the “coincidental” assertions contained in a soon to be released book by longtime Clinton sycophant and nominal journalist Joe Conason, whose previous book The Hunting of Hillary accepts as a fact that indeed a “vast right wing conspiracy” has been pursuing this paragon of political virtue and her husband for decades. According to Conason, Powell advised Hillary to use private email in an off-the-cuff remark during a dinner party for former State Secretaries at the home of Madeline Albright in 2009.
Powell reportedly has no recollection of the comment, but did acknowledge using private email for efficiency’s sake in the darker ages before the use of email was ubiquitous and computers and servers more powerful. (Powell served from 2001-2005.) By the time Hillary took over the State Department had formalized rules regarding private email use for official business, which is to say it was prohibited. Regardless, according to Conason, Hillary had already decided to use private email before Powell’s alleged comment, the dinner party chat only confirming her decision, or more likely tucked away as a useful excuse for wrongdoing should she need it later, as indeed she did.
Of course, even assuming Powell made such a comment, he certainly did not have in mind that Hillary would establish a private server in her home, and Powell in his documented comments on the use of private email was clear to specify it was only for unclassified material. Hillary, of course, used it for both. And Powell didn’t operate a phony private charitable foundation to line the pockets of his family and a host of cronies during his tenure, manipulating American foreign policy to that end. If he had, he might have needed such a private server to keep his corruption secret and avoid jail, like Hillary.
That Hillary evidently mentioned Powell in her FBI interview to explain away her use of the server, as a precedent of sorts, despite the fact it was clearly against the rules of the agency she headed at the time, demonstrates that the interview was just a sham. Powell’s statements and actions, even assuming he made the dinner party comment, in no way shape or form would absolve Hillary of her violations of State Department policy, or those concerning the security of classified information. It’s like trying to get out of being charged because your bus ran a red light and killed a pedestrian on the basis that the car just in front of you did it too and didn’t hit anyone.
But it would have bolstered the justifications that FBI Director James Comey planned to use a couple days later to announce that that he would not recommend charges against Clinton. Comey’s comments centered entirely on whether Hillary deliberately intended to compromise national security when she set up the server and then used it for almost all of her State Department business. He ignored the fact that the relevant statute also made it a crime to handle such documents in a grossly negligent manner, which Hillary, by his own admission, did. Plus an investigator or prosecutor determined to enforce the law and put an obvious wrongdoer in jail could have found plenty of evidence for intent as well, from the planning, cost, and premeditation that went into the establishment of the server, to Hillary’s deletion of thousands of emails on the lame and demonstrably false excuse that they concerned wedding plans and yoga, to her public lies and explanations about the entire enterprise.
But Comey had no intention of doing this. The interview as noted here was a pretense, no doubt chock full of canned questions that allowed Hillary to excuse her actions without perjuring herself. Her claims that she was only innocently following the advice of Powell — regardless of how preposterous they really were — helped provide the rationalization Comey needed for himself, and his agents, to let Hillary skate. When Comey claimed that he, the investigating agents and his staff all agreed that no charges should be brought, how much easier it was to say that well “Colin Powell did it too” and “She was only taking his advice, right?” With that rationalization, a couple shots of whiskey, some Xanax, and a glance at paychecks, it no doubt helped them all get to sleep that night.
If Powell did indeed make that dinner table comment, he must rue it today, having served honorably (if unspectacularly) in the same role, only to be tarred with the stink of Clintonian corruption for his trouble. Even if he did not make the comment, he ought to equally regret that he merely sat down to dinner with Hillary. Unfortunately, that can happen when you eat with or lie down with the Clintons. You may come out of it rich and connected, or more likely raped, broke, dead or soiled (too many examples here, but add one named Powell.)
To the list of victims, common folks, and politicians left in the wake of that runaway bus of crime and corruption known as Clinton, add one more — former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Leaks emerging from the Congressional acquisition of the heavily redacted FBI interview with Hillary Clinton that took place in July, indicate that part of the discussion with Democrat nominee centered on Clinton’s claim that she set up her private email server on the recommendation of Powell.
This account of the origins of the server is in line with the “coincidental” assertions contained in a soon to be released book by longtime Clinton sycophant and nominal journalist Joe Conason, whose previous book The Hunting of Hillary accepts as a fact that indeed a “vast right wing conspiracy” has been pursuing this paragon of political virtue and her husband for decades. According to Conason, Powell advised Hillary to use private email in an off-the-cuff remark during a dinner party for former State Secretaries at the home of Madeline Albright in 2009.
Powell reportedly has no recollection of the comment, but did acknowledge using private email for efficiency’s sake in the darker ages before the use of email was ubiquitous and computers and servers more powerful. (Powell served from 2001-2005.) By the time Hillary took over the State Department had formalized rules regarding private email use for official business, which is to say it was prohibited. Regardless, according to Conason, Hillary had already decided to use private email before Powell’s alleged comment, the dinner party chat only confirming her decision, or more likely tucked away as a useful excuse for wrongdoing should she need it later, as indeed she did.
Of course, even assuming Powell made such a comment, he certainly did not have in mind that Hillary would establish a private server in her home, and Powell in his documented comments on the use of private email was clear to specify it was only for unclassified material. Hillary, of course, used it for both. And Powell didn’t operate a phony private charitable foundation to line the pockets of his family and a host of cronies during his tenure, manipulating American foreign policy to that end. If he had, he might have needed such a private server to keep his corruption secret and avoid jail, like Hillary.
That Hillary evidently mentioned Powell in her FBI interview to explain away her use of the server, as a precedent of sorts, despite the fact it was clearly against the rules of the agency she headed at the time, demonstrates that the interview was just a sham. Powell’s statements and actions, even assuming he made the dinner party comment, in no way shape or form would absolve Hillary of her violations of State Department policy, or those concerning the security of classified information. It’s like trying to get out of being charged because your bus ran a red light and killed a pedestrian on the basis that the car just in front of you did it too and didn’t hit anyone.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/colin_powell_goes_under_the_clinton_bus.html#ixzz4HzXkb4fT
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Have you ever, even once, written an original thought?
As you just previously mentioned, keep on track, take a minute, remind yourself that this is not just about you, that others would like the coutersy that only an adult can provide, and stay on the topic at hand.
The Chump campaign is a mess and an embarrassment. Dana Perino from Fox News says that she will not tell people what they want to hear and that is that Chump is not in trouble. She has been threatened on Twitter because of her opinions. She said that she has been pressured to say that polls are indicating that chump is closing the gap and that is not true. Also the size of his crowds are important and that is also not true. She told Bill O’Reilly that she learned her lesson in 2012 that false reporting will only lead to a big disappointment for viewers and won’t ever do it again. Chump supporters will eat dirt and will swear that it’s the best chocolate that there is because they believe that he is their last hope. I kind of feel sorry for them like the wife who continuously goes back to her abusive husband because he truly loves her. Very sad indeed.
I thought You should know as it reflects on our possible next President
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BdNHf1g4ivA
What’s the big deal? Nothing. That’s why he hasn’t filed his taxes. He’s under audit. Go back to the campfire you and Klastri share and cook some tilapia for dinner.
How can it be audited when you’re saying he hasn’t filed it. You and fellow Chumpsters will go down the toilet like you know what.
Here’s a game changer: Sarah Palin has announced that she’s advising Trump on foreign policy. I guess she got tired of waiting for the rapture, which she predicted would be the result of Obama’s foreign policy. Perhaps Palin is filling in while Ivanka and her husband, who are said to be Trump’s main advisors, were doing foreign policy research last week in Croatia on David Geffen’s $200M yacht.
The blind leading the blind.
Somewhere, perhaps in a locked drawer in Reince Priebus’s desk, is a calendar with a big red circle around the day when the RNC will activate the “break glass” plan” in which they will concede the election to Clinton and totally abandon Trump, just as they once abandoned Bob Dole, allowing them to devote all of their resources to limiting the damage that Trump is doing to the down ticket races. When you see ads that tell Republicans not to let President Clinton pick the next Supreme Court, you’ll know that they’ve thrown in the towel.
Governor John Bel Edwards (D)of Louisiana thanked Trump/Pence for their visit and support. Trump also made a $100,000 donation to the Church they visited.
Hillary said What difference at this point does it matter.
They better cash it before it bounces. They only have seventy people nation wide staffing his campaign. Must be no more money. All talk no action. Big praise for a trailer of food. The way he brags where is the convoy of trailers. Chump always speaks with forked tongue.
Trump gains ground against Clinton, tracking poll finds
Donald Trump has gained ground against Hillary Clinton, according to the latest findings from the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times national tracking poll of the presidential race.
The uptick for Trump follows a broad-based decline in early August and suggests a possible narrowing of the race.
Trump has regained some of ground he lost after the Democratic National Convention in late July, when he repeatedly criticized the Muslim American parents of a dead U.S. Army captain, and appeared to urge Russia to hack Clinton’s email.
As of Sunday, the tracking poll showed Trump at 45% and Clinton at 43%, within the survey’s margin of error. Those results are far closer than most other polls, which use different methodology and almost uniformly show Clinton ahead by several points.
The shift follows a shakeup last week at the top of the Trump campaign after weeks of turmoil. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ousted after his past work for pro-Kremlin figures in the Ukraine became a political liability.
Turnout is a key factor in any election, and the poll also asks if Clinton and Trump supporters plan to vote.
For the first time in three weeks, more Trump supporters said they planned to vote than Clinton supporters by a slight margin, 83%-82%.
One week ago, on August 14, 78% of Trump supporters planned to vote compared with 83% of Clinton supporters.
Separately, the poll also asks voters which candidate they think will win. That question has often shown greater ability to predict election outcomes than asking people who they will vote for, particularly when the election remains months away.
Clinton continues to lead voter expectations by a large margin, 54%-40%.
After the Republican National Convention last month, Trump had briefly narrowed the gap on that question, but Clinton rebounded sharply in mid-August and has held that lead.
Some analysts have suggested that the way the USC/L.A. Times Daybreak poll is weighted has shifted the results a few points in Trump’s favor.
Every poll weights results to make sure the survey sample matches known demographic facts. They thus are weighted to reflect accurate percentages of men and women or older and younger voters.
Each poll does that process differently, and until the votes are counted, there’s no way to know for sure which method was right.
The Daybreak tracking poll uses a different methodology than most election surveys.
Instead of randomly contacting a different set of people for each survey, it uses a panel of roughly 3,200 eligible voters, selected to be representative of the U.S. electorate. Those people are resurveyed continuously, roughly 300-400 per day.
As a result, shifts in the candidates’ standings reflect actual people changing their minds as opposed to variations in who responds from one survey to the next.
Using a 0-100 scale, the poll asks voters to estimate the chance that they will vote for Clinton, Trump or another candidate.
Each week, the poll has found that about three-quarters of the voters don’t significantly shift their preferences.
Wake up you’re having another wet dream. The only poll that you follow is the eenie meenie miny mo poll.