As a tremendous landlord (and possible former slumlord), Donald Trump knows how to execute a good rent spike. So, when Trump decided to quit "self-funding" his campaign and accept outside donations in March, The Huffington Post reports, he also decided to start jacking up the rent for certain office space in Trump Tower. It just happened to be the office space used, and paid for, by his campaign.

According to HuffPost, new FEC filings from the Trump campaign indicate it paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,458 for commercial space in March, when Trump was still largely self-funding. But as the months went by, up went the rent. By May, the same space in Trump Tower cost the campaign $72,800. Then it paid $110,684 on June 9, and $169,758 on July 10.

In total, the campaign paid $169,758 in rent during the month of July, HuffPost tells us, nearly five times what it paid in March.

But wait—maybe costs were just growing with his campaign. After all, Trump secured the Republican nomination during this period and may have been gearing up for the general election. Except the same report indicates the Trump campaign was paying 197 employees and consultants in March. In July, the number actually dropped to 172. That's pretty much in line with what we know about Trump's organization, which has long been hovering between bare-bones and non-existent.

[pullquote align='C']The Trump campaign was paying 197 employees and consultants in March. In July, the number actually dropped to 172.[/pullquote]

But, as HuffPost's Sam Stein argues:

[twitter ]https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/768075708354658304[/twitter]

However, this money—the vast majority from outside donors since May—is routed back to Trump's own companies. Trump's campaign has paid his various golf courses and restaurants upwards of $260,000 since mid-May, while $495,000 went to his company that owns his private jet in July alone. (He flies everywhere in the jet, which burns $10,000 in fuel every hour.)

It remains unclear how much space, in square footage, the campaign is leasing from Trump Tower, and how that rate per square foot compares to HuffPost's assessment of the midtown Manhattan average of "$70 per square foot annually." But what's certainly clear is that, since Trump's personal money became a tiny percentage of his campaign fund, campaign expenses have gone way up.

"If I was a donor, I'd want answers," a Republican National Committee member told HuffPost on condition of anonymity. "If they don't have any more staff, and they're paying five times more? That's the kind of stuff I'd read and try to make an (attack) ad out of it."

You can read the full Huffington Post report here.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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