California Republicans spent big bucks at Trump hotels, golf clubs and resorts

When Republican candidates book a hotel, luncheon spot or venue for campaign events, they’re increasingly turning to a familiar name: Trump.

GOP candidates for Congress from California and political action committees associated with them spent more than $274,000 at President Trump’s businesses and properties over the course of the 2018 election, paying for everything from fundraisers at the president’s D.C. hotel to outings on his Los Angeles-area golf course, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

All together, Republican candidates and committees around the country spent more than $3.5 million at Trump properties in 2017 and 2018. In comparison, campaigns spent less than $20,000 on his business empire during the 2014 cycle, before Trump’s political ascent.

Democrats didn’t spend a penny at Trump properties in the 2017-18 campaign.

The campaign money is a sign of how many GOP politicians are doing everything they can to associate themselves with Trump, even in a blue state like California. But the practice is raising eyebrows among good government advocates.

“They’re literally lining the president’s pockets,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and the former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. “It strains common sense to think that these people are just suddenly interested in Trump businesses.”

The Trump organization and the White House did not respond to requests for comment about the campaign spending on Trump properties and whether any of the president’s political decisions were influenced by which candidates spent money at Trump Organization businesses.

Unlike past presidents, Trump has refused to divest from his businesses or seal them in a blind trust, instead placing The Trump Organization into a trust run by his two sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. While the real estate mogul has argued that he has placed enough distance between himself and his sprawling business empire, the unusual arrangement has drawn sustained questions about conflicts of interest.

Nearly half of the money Trump’s businesses raked in from political campaigns — $1.46 million — was spent at the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., which the president owns 77 percent of and opened two months before his electoral victory. A flashy space in a converted post office just blocks from the White House, it’s become a see-and-be-seen hot spot for conservative-leaning politicos — who spent an additional $105,000 at its steakhouse.

Trump’s own re-election campaign was one of the biggest spenders at his businesses over the past two years, shelling out more than $971,000 for expenses ranging from rent at Trump Tower to lodging at his hotels around the country to office supplies from Trump Ice, a branded bottled water company. Those arrangements let Trump essentially convert campaign donations from supporters into revenue for his family’s businesses.

California campaigns spent more at Trump properties than those from any other state. The bulk of the Golden State spending came from Protect the House, a political action committee founded by GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and Vice President Mike Pence to defend vulnerable GOP incumbents. The group spent $228,537.66 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, New Jersey golf course, and D.C. hotel, using the hotel for a 300-person fundraiser in September and paying more than $65,000 in catering expenses.

Trump made an appearance at the PAC’s gala in the building with his name on it, taking the opportunity to signal support for McCarthy’s bid for House leadership, according to reports from inside the private event. The group raised $24 million over the course of the election cycle to support GOP campaigns, according to FEC records. McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Republican strategists say that the decision to hold fundraising events at Trump properties is aimed at attracting donors who are fans of the president — not trying to curry favor with Trump himself.

“Among those who would attend Republican fundraisers, there’s an allure to an event at a venue that is connected to the president,” said Ron Nehring, a former California Republican Party chair. “The overriding factor when you’re holding a fundraiser is what’s going to raise the most money.”

Three of the California Republicans who lost re-election bids this year — Dana Rohrabacher, Jeff Denham and David Valadao — spent campaign cash at Trump properties. Rohrabacher, a 30-year Orange County incumbent known for his fondness toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, spent $12,545 for event space, supplies and catering at the Trump D.C. hotel over several months of 2017.

Other California spenders at the D.C. hotel included Duncan Hunter, the San Diego-area congressman who won re-election despite being indicted for misuse of campaign funds, and Antonio Sabato Jr., the “General Hospital” heartthrob who made an unsuccessful run against Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley in Ventura County.

Closer to home, Omar Navarro, a long-shot Los Angeles congressional candidate who’s challenged Trump nemesis Rep. Maxine Waters several years in a row, spent $11,845 on rental fees and meals at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes as well as multiple stays at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Two major Trump allies — the president’s former advisor Roger Stone and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio — fired up crowds at Navarro events last year at the golf club, which features postcard views of the Southern California coast.

Navarro said in an interview that he chose Trump properties in part because some venues in his liberal-leaning district had refused to host his campaign events after pressure from activists.

“The Trump businesses would not give in to threats or intimidation,” Navarro said. “It’s a business like any other, and people should choose to do business where they feel comfortable.”

Nationally, some of the campaigns that dropped the most money on Trump included the Republican National Committee, which spent more than $1.27 million, Vice President Mike Pence’s PAC Great America Committee, which spent $24,134, and Greg Pence, the veep’s brother and a successful candidate for Congress in Indiana, who spent $22,149.67.

No federal Democratic candidate or PAC spent a single dollar at a business with Trump in its name in 2017 or 2018. And no candidate for state office in California paid Trump’s businesses either, according to the campaign finance database maintained by the Secretary of State’s office.

The president has faced growing scrutiny over his business ties and perceived conflicts of interest. He’s currently facing a lawsuit from the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C., arguing that foreign government spending at his hotel violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits presidents from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the approval of Congress. The political candidate spending doesn’t appear to run afoul of that provision, said Georgetown Law professor John Mikhail, who’s studied the issue.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., allowed the lawsuit to move forward last month. The case gives the prosecutors the ability to subpoena documents about the president’s corporate ties and could shed more light on his administration’s mixing of political and business matters.

“The American public usually doesn’t get to draw as direct a line as this between spending money and political decisions,” Levinson said. “We’re in a very unique situation.”

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