As the Blue Wave Rolls, Trump is Bleeding the Republican Party Dry

As Republicans in Congress face a threatening blue wave in the midterms, the Republican National Committee is paying more than $37,000 a month in rent to President Donald Trump’s company, and thousands more in salary to Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew, John Pence. Thus far, they’ve spent more than $290,000 since September.

Right as the RNC stopped paying Trump’s personal legal fees for the Russia probe, they started funneling almost $40k a month to Trump’s company and paying thousands more to Mike Pence’s nephew, Christina Wilkie reported in CNBC.

This arrangement of covering expenses previously paid by the Trump campaign is “bizarre, but legal,” Wilkie reports, but Brandan Fischer, the senior counsel for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, noted that while it’s permissible, it’s also a mystery since they should be spending that money on the 2018 campaign rather than paying Trump’s rent.

Republicans raised more than $100 million in the first nine months of 2017 giving them a large advantage over Democrats, fueled mostly by small donations from Trump voters. So Trump voters contributing $50.00 to the RNC were paying for Trump’s personal legal fees and now they are paying tens of thousands a month to Trump in rent instead of helping to get Republicans re-elected, which is necessary in order to advance the Trump agenda these voters no doubt support.

The RNC set a record by the end of 2017 with $132.5 million, which more than doubled the Democratic National Committee’ take for 2017.

The RNC’s payments started when suddenly the RNC could no longer pay Trump’s personal legal fees. Mike Pence is somehow involved in all of this since his nephew is also being paid thousands a month.

At the very least, this is not what draining the swamp looks like. It is legal, however. Legal and bizarre.

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Sarah Jones

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