Donald Trump gets his grift on, chapter 437:
On May 10, the Trump campaign paid Barnes & Noble $55,055, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. That amounts to more than 3,500 copies of the hardcover version of Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or just over 5,000 copies of the renamed paperback release, Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.
They had to buy those books, the campaign says, to go in Republican National Convention swag bags along with the plastic fetus figurines. But the traditional way to buy your own books in bulk would be to get them at a discounted rate from the publisher, not pay retail to Barnes & Noble. Why on earth might a campaign pay retail? One of the obvious reasons—obvious given we’re talking about Donald Trump, anyway—is probably illegal:
Paul Ryan (not that one), of the nonpartisan nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said that Trump would have to forgo accepting royalties for sales on the book in order for the transaction to be legal, under Federal Election Committee rules.
“It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher,” Ryan said. “That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use. There’s a well established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket.”
Trump could also benefit from added book sales helping to propel his book onto bestseller lists, though the New York Times list weights against bulk purchases, so having your campaign spend $55,000 might not be that helpful. Where Trump is concerned, though, the obvious answer—cold hard cash—is probably the right answer. Which means the FEC should definitely be following up about those royalties.