Donald Trump is only pretending to run for reelection, and now we know how he’s pocketing the money

| 10:38 pm EDT July 15, 2017
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Donald Trump isn’t running for reelection; he’s only pretending. No president campaigns for a second term while he’s still in his first few months in office. Yet Trump has been holding events and fundraisers under the guise of a 2020 reelection campaign, which he’s already technically kicked off. but it’s been exposed as nothing more than a front so he can pocket the money he’s raising. And now we know how he’s funneling it back to himself.

Over the past three months, Donald Trump has used his campaign funds to pay more than two-thirds of a million dollars worth of legal fees to attorneys representing himself and his son Donald Trump Jr. in the Russia scandal, according to his campaign’s public disclosures (source: Politico). So now we know why Trump has been so eager to hit the road and hold reelection fundraising events: he’s using that money to pay bills that he’s supposed to be paying out his own pocket, meaning he’s effectively funneling campaign money into his own hands.

Trump is trying to get around any legal hangups by listing the attorneys representing him and his family in his scandals as doing “legal consulting” for the campaign. According to the spirit of the law, that’s fraudulent. As a practical matter, it’s not clear whether he can get away with this or not. But two things are now abundantly clear. The first is that anyone donating to Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is actually donating to the attorneys who are getting rich off Trump’s treasonous scandals. Perhaps Trump’s base doesn’t care about the distinction. But it’s the second revelation here that has broader consequences.

In the highly unlikely event that Donald Trump somehow gets through this term without being removed by impeachment or resignation or the 25th Amendment, it’s possible he might decide to run for reelection. But he’s definitely not running for reelection as of yet. This “reelection” effort is nothing more than a fraud to pay his legal bills. Isn’t he supposed to be a billionaire? If Trump this desperate for cash, it further suggests that he’s as broke and deeply in debt to foreign governments as we all think he is. If you find Palmer Report valuable, make a donation.