Trump Victory Committee paid nearly $400,000 to Trump's Washington hotel in second quarter: analysis

President Donald Trump's fundraising operation paid about $400,000 to the Trump International Hotel in Washington in the second quarter, an analysis by a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics revealed.

The Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising operation between Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee, spent about $400,000 at Trump's hotel between April and June, according to CPR researcher Anna Massoglia.

Trump's fundraising operation has steered "over $3 million in donations from presidential campaign donors to Trump family, properties & businesses with his 2020 re-election campaign & Trump MAGA joint fundraising [committee]," Massoglia wrote on Twitter. "$17.4M+ counting 2016."

The Trump Victory Committee previously spent more than $250,000 at the Washington hotel in the second quarter of 2019, according to an analysis by 1100 Pennsylvania. The hotel has received more than $1.1 million in total from Trump Victory, the RNC, Vice President Mike Pence's Great American Committee and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's Protect the House committee.

Trump campaign spending has been a boon for his private company, from which he has refused to divest. By last fall, political spending by Trump's campaign committees and his allies at Trump properties topped $20 million, according to CPR data.

Trump's presidency, which he kicked off by dropping $1 million to book a ballroom at his own hotel ahead of his inauguration, has also resulted in new cash flow for the company.

The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold has tracked about $970,000 in taxpayer spending at Trump's properties since he took office, though that number only scratches the surface. Both the administration and the Trump Organization have gone to great lengths to conceal how much taxpayer money is spent at the properties.

Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, claimed last year that the administration relied on the president's properties to save taxpayers money.

Secret Service agents "stay at our properties for free — meaning, like, cost for housekeeping," he insisted. "We charge them, like, 50 bucks."

But receipts obtained by The Post show that the Trump Organization jacked up the prices when Secret Service agents stayed at the property on the taxpayers' dime. The Trump Organization charges Secret Service an average of $396 per night, or about eight times more than Eric Trump's claim.

Fahrenthold wrote on Twitter that he has found "exactly zero cases where Trump Org did what they promised."

"They always charged more," the reporter added.

Newly-released Federal Election Commission filings cast more light on the donors that powered Trump to a $262 million haul between his campaign committees and the party committees in the second quarter.

Top donors to the Trump Victory Committee included Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter and his wife Laura, as well as Jet Support Services CEO Robert Book and his wife Amy. Both couples gave more than $1.1 million combined.

Other top donors include oil tycoon Douglas Scharbauer ($580,000), prominent Scientologist Trish Duggan ($580,000) and Ross Perot Jr. ($575,000).

"Trump Supporters, that money he told he desperately needed to help him get re-elected went right in his pocket," actor and activist Jon Cryer tweeted in response to the spending at the Washington hotel.

"Who knew," tweeted radio host David Pakman, "running for president could be so profitable."