Trump campaign accused of using 'creative accounting' to hide donor cash problems

Questions are being raised about the "jaw-droppingly" low dollar amount of refunds being made by Donald Trump's presidential campaign and it appears the former president's team is testing the limits of Federal Election Commission reporting requirements.

What is raising red flags is the Trump team reporting it has returned a paltry $1,400 in refunds since November 2022 while President Joe Biden's campaign has sent back about $360,000 last year and another $222,000 in just the past month.

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, the former president's people are using "creative accounting" to shuffle cash around between PAC's when donors exceed the legal limit and then kicking the can down the road when it comes to reporting the return of money that, if kept, would violate campaign donation laws.

As Sollenberger wrote, splitting the cash between PAC's allows Trump to hang on to the money longer while also tamping down the bad press that his campaign is facing a cash crunch.

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"On paper, Trump’s refund rate is virtually impossible," he explained. "His campaign has not solved this persistent problem of overpayments. His donors are, in fact, breaking the donation limits—dozens and dozens of them, according to the notices that the FEC sent his campaign after every 2023 filing. Typically, if a donor gives a campaign too much money, the campaign refunds the excess amount to the person, reporting it later in FEC filings. But when a donor gives too much to the Trump campaign through this joint committee, the campaign does not refund that person."

The Daily Beast report states "the maneuvering also appears to demand at least some degree of misrepresentation to the FEC, if not outright lying," later adding it also helps to hide other problems for the re-election campaign.

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"High refund rates can signal potential donor burnout, a financial clue that a campaign has maxed out most of its reliable supporters and might be in danger of going into the red if it can’t find other funding sources," the report noted. "The campaign has one other incentive to hold all the money it can: it earns money, collecting interest while sitting in the bank. Trump’s joint fundraising committee, however, does not report interest income."

You can read much more here.