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Trump’s $10 Million Loan To His 2016 Campaign Raises New Questions

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Trump boasted about self-funding his 2016 campaign, but in its tense final moments, his advisers could only get him to agree to a loan. "It was like a cash advance."

Trump boasted about self-funding his 2016 campaign, but in its tense final moments, his advisers could only get him to agree to a loan. "It was like a cash advance."

  1. 21 Oct 2020

    NEW: As the 2020 campaign hurtles toward a close, questions remain about a last-minute, $10 million lifeline Trump threw to his 2016 campaign, a loan that helped catapult him into the presidency

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  2. 21 Oct 2020

    Speculation has swirled around the source of that money. But nothing is known about whether the $10 million loan — which the campaign reported as a contribution — was ever repaid, who might have repaid it, and whether it would even be legal to do so

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  3. 21 Oct 2020

    Late in the 2016 campaign, Trump bragged that unlike Hillary Clinton, he couldn’t be bought by powerful corporate interests, because he was using his own money rather than taking big donations

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  4. 21 Oct 2020

    In fact, Trump had put in far less than the $100 million he’d pledged. His campaign was running out of money and being vastly outspent by Clinton, who was leading in most polls.

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  5. 21 Oct 2020

    With less than 2 weeks to go before election day, Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon later told the FBI, Trump wasn’t willing to cut a check. So Steve Mnuchin proposed a solution: Make it a loan. The campaign could repay him with small donations that were still coming in.

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  6. 21 Oct 2020

    Bannon, Mnuchin, and other advisors pressured him for five hours, until, Bannon said, Trump gave in. The campaign reported the money — but called it a “candidate contribution” rather than a loan.

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  7. 21 Oct 2020

    According to the Campaign Law Center, the idea that Trump would write a large check, sign documents characterizing it as a loan, then almost immediately recast it as a donation, “just doesn’t add up.” Read our full report here:

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  8. 21 Oct 2020

    Trump called the $10 million a loan. His campaign called it a donation. Who paid it back, and how? (Added bonus: a great scene on "Trump Force One," starring Trump and Mnuchin.)

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  9. 21 Oct 2020

    "In a meeting in the 26th-floor offices of the Trump Tower in Manhattan, Mnuchin proposed that Trump put forward $10 million immediately. The campaign could repay him down the line with the small donations that were still coming in."

    Trump called the $10 million a loan. His campaign called it a donation. Who paid it back, and how? (Added bonus: a great scene on "Trump Force One," starring Trump and Mnuchin.)
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  10. 21 Oct 2020

    So there seems to be more to the story. More on Mueller's inquiry into whether Egypt funded the $10M: More on the bank loan (guaranteed by Phil Ruffin) that Trump obtained weeks before putting the $10M into his campaign:

    Incredible new story that raises questions about whether Trump secretly financed his 2016 campaign with an undisclosed bank loan, backed by a billionaire developer, with taxpayers unwittingly helping to foot the bill.
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