Just thought I’d put out a friendly reminder that the Trump campaign’s monthly FEC filing has a deadline of 11:59 pm tonight, July 20th (if Trump’s campaign files electronically).
If the report is filed, one will be able to access it here. FEC.gov
I already have a friendly wager going that Trump’s campaign will NOT file tonight. The maximum fine for not timely filing is $16,000, a mere pittance (pocket change) for a man of Trump’s vast means. IMHO, $16,000 is a small price to pay to delay the filing until Friday, after The Donald’s glorious coronation has been completed. It would also be a classic late Friday news dump, dropping that FEC filing as everyone heads into the weekend. Of course, classic Friday news dumps are a hallmark of professional, disciplined campaigns, so I guess that augers against my position.
Why is this July FEC filing going to be so darn interesting? Well, as others have already written and according to Trump’s June filing, Trump has loaned $45 million to his campaign. This $45 million loan has big Republican donors worried that Trump will take their millions in campaign contributions and pay himself back for these loans, so they are holding the purse strings pretty tightly. To assuage the fears of these billionaire donors, Trump has publicly stated that he’s writing off that $45 million, but so far, his campaign has refused to release any objective evidence of that writedown, and there hasn’t been any filing made with the FEC to that effect.
And, Trump was under a deadline to make a decision about paying himself back, as once he officially became the nominee yesterday, the rules changed for him being able to pay himself back with campaign funds. So he can’t simply kick the can of this issue down the road a bit — he needed to decide what to do within the time of the last reporting period, which was June 1st to June 30th.
All will be revealed when this July FEC report finally does come out. How much did Trump raise? Where did that money go, to fund the Trump campaign or to pay back the loans? Bear in mind that there was essentially no paid Trump presence on television during the entire month of June, which would tend to suggest that the money raised wasn’t going for campaign expenses. Did he or didn’t he write off the $45 million in loans? Will the out-of-money RNC somehow bail him out Should be a fun read!