RNC paid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago over $175,000 for donor retreat
- Federal Election Commission filings show that the six-figure sum was paid in May to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, a month after the April donor event.
- The payment is just the latest from Republican officials to a venue owned by the former president.
- Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama and briefly under Trump, told CNBC the payment represents Republican leadership working to enrich the former president.
The Republican National Committee paid just over $175,000 to former President Donald Trump’s private club to host part of its spring donor retreat.
Federal Election Commission filings show that the six-figure sum was paid in May to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago,
a month after the April donor event at the private club in Palm Beach, Florida. A Republican National Committee spokeswoman confirmed that more than $175,000 was, in fact, for the meeting. The new RNC filing describes the payment to Mar-a-Lago as fees for “venue rental and catering.”
Part of the RNC sponsored-event that month was held at Mar-a-Lago, where the former president took aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
NBC News reported at the time that Trump called McConnell a “dumb son of a b----” and a “stone-cold loser.” The other portion of the retreat took place at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach.
“I think it’s the same phenomenon as when he did this while in government, grifting."
The fact that they’re still willing to pay him shows their commitment to meeting his demands for enrichment,” Shaub said.
“That sends a message that they won’t be demanding he clean up his act. To the contrary, it says they are fully complicit in his monetizing his political activities.”
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