$15.1 million. That's the minimum amount Donald Trump's companies have raked in from Trump's own campaign and presidency. Fifteen million dollars worth of business from checks written to him by everyone from the Secret Service, which was billed for riding on Trump's plane and renting golf carts at Trump's clubs, to the suckers that donated to his campaign, to official Republican Party committees.
The money went to Trump’s airplanes, hotels, golf courses, even a bottled water company during the presidential campaign and the first 15 months of his presidency, according to a compilation of known records of the spending by Public Citizen obtained by McClatchy.
But it was Trump’s campaign itself that spent the biggest chunk by far – about 90 percent, or $13.4 million.
It also includes more than $717,000 from the Republican National Committee; nearly $595,000 from Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee set up by the RNC and Trump’s campaign; and $9,000 from the National Republican Senate Committee.
Trump also got cash from political action committees, including the one headed by his own vice president. The man is a grifting machine, and Republicans keep popping in quarters.
Note that while Trump enriched himself to the tune of $13 million dollars from campaign coffers through the rather lowbrow grift of requiring his campaign to buy Trump bottled water and frequent Trump-branded properties, that still leaves $2 million that was handed over to him by other Republican political groups. As in, intentionally; they chose to do it. They chose to allow Trump to financially profit from their activities.
And this isn't the final number, because the grift has been ongoing. Trump's Mar-a-Lago club has been soliciting new members at new higher prices—now that there's a very good chance of getting to tickle the ear of a sitting president on any given weekend, after all, it'll cost you extra—and pro-Trump groups have been explicitly booking events at Trump properties in order to reward, and seek favors from, Donald Trump.
In any other past presidency this would have been considered staggeringly corrupt. It still is, of course, but it turns out that the rules against collecting cash payments as "reward" for having certain policy positions—that is, bribes—were purely advisory in nature, and if Republican leadership decides they wish to allow it, or themselves help engage in it, then there is nobody in the country who can arrest them for it.
So right now, at this very moment, Donald Trump is collecting cash money through his business that results in personal profit for him. He can dip into those profits at any time—the arrangements he made at the beginning of his tenure allow it. And again, this is not well-wishers donating to his campaign: these are interest groups, Republican groups, and even federal agencies all putting money into the man's own pocket. It's a grift. The fake billionaire can't get through the day without working every possible angle for a few more dollars, and so far the only Republican Party response has been to get in on the action.