Republican campaigns and political groups have sharply slowed their spending at President Donald Trump’s businesses in recent months as his approval rating has fallen, according to an analysis of federal campaign finance records.
From June through the end of September, GOP groups spent $336,000 at Trump properties, reported The Washington Post. During the same stretch of Trump’s first term, they spent $949,000, which is about $1.3 million in today’s dollars. That makes the recent pace roughly a quarter of what it was then.
The slowdown comes after a lavish start to Trump’s second term. Since January 2025, Republican Senate and House campaigns and political groups have spent a total of $2.9 million on fundraisers, rooms, meals and merchandise at Trump’s resorts, the Post found.
That’s only slightly below the $3.3 million, adjusted for inflation, spent during the comparable period of his first term. The total held up even though Trump’s Washington hotel, once the hub of GOP spending, is no longer run by the Trump Organization.
Instead, the money has moved to Florida. Spending at Mar-a-Lago has more than tripled from Trump’s first term in today’s dollars.
“They don’t even have a place that’s close to Congress anymore, and they’re still making their way down to Florida as much as possible,” said Robert Maguire, research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The Republican National Committee was the biggest spender, with nearly $1.8 million in charges at Trump properties. Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., came next, followed by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Party officials defended the spending.
“We hold events where donors want to show up, and that’s Mar-a-Lago,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.
Some of Trump’s most loyal allies stood out. Team Ronny PAC, which raises money for Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Trump’s former White House physician, has spent more than $120,000 at Trump businesses. That includes a single Mar-a-Lago tab of more than $48,000 in April, the week of Jackson’s birthday party, which featured a cake topped with a stethoscope. Trump did not attend.
Joe Mitchell, the GOP candidate in Iowa’s competitive 2nd Congressional District, has spent nearly $90,000 at Trump businesses, mostly at Mar-a-Lago. Democrats have used that spending to paint him as out of touch.
For Trump personally, the money is relatively little. He reported more than $2.2 billion in income in 2025, including more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency, digital tokens, and related ventures.
The Post’s analysis does not include spending by Trump’s own campaign committees or unreported spending by dark-money groups.