(1/7) While reporting this story, we found that the president’s companies were taking in money from his reelection campaign, even though the president was not donating to that campaign (like he did to his first one). forbes.com/sites/danalexa…
(2/7) You can see the “candidate contributions” and “loans made by candidate,” all $0 of them, here: fec.gov/data/candidate… 
(3/7) And you’ll see his companies collecting checks, according to data compiled by the Federal Election Commission, here: fec.gov
(4/7) In case there was a doubt about who owned those companies, yes, it’s the president. You can see the web of companies broken down in his financial disclosure report. This is the ownership structure of Trump Tower Commercial LLC, for example. extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.n…
(5/7) It’s all self-dealing, but some of it has logic to it, like payments to the hotel in DC or the LLC that owns Trump Tower, where the campaign has a booth selling Trump reelection gear, which you can see here:
(6/7) Other payments make less sense. For example, the campaign pays Trump Plaza LLC, which owns a strip mall, garage, and two townhouses on Third Avenue in NYC. The campaign doesn’t appear to have any space in the strip mall. So why was it paying that LLC rent?
(7/7) One thing that is clear: Trump’s campaign converted donations from people across the country into revenue for his business. Here’s the full story: forbes.com/sites/danalexa…
