By Mark Sumner
Thursday Sep 22, 2016 · 3:03 PM EDT
A half million here, a half million there and eventually it all adds up.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has paid his family's businesses more than $8.2 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance filings, which reveals an integrated business and political operation without precedent in national politics.
Previous candidates have been reluctant to get involved in such self-love because of a few piddly problems.
Even the wealthiest of candidates have refrained from tapping their businesses’ resources to such an extensive degree … because they’re leery of the allegations of pocket-padding that inevitably arise when politicians use their campaigns or committees to pay their businesses or families.
But then, ethics is just another name for political correctness. Trump’s followers don’t have a problem with him stealing from a charity, why should they have any difficulty with him taking money away from the campaign. That baby that was crying at a Trump rally? Trump probably took its candy … didn’t cost him a vote.
Trump ... certainly doesn’t appear to feel any embarrassment about flouting political norms that typically compel candidates to distance themselves from their businesses during campaigns. […]
Trump, who in 2000 predicted “I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” declined to comment through a spokesman.?
The amount of money that Trump has paid himself during the campaign is already more than double all his donations to charity since 2001. So Donald Trump is generous … but only to Donald Trump.
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