HuffPost: Digital Ad Makers Making Millions Off Of Trump’s Reelection Campaign
HuffPost: Digital Ad Makers Making Millions Off Of Trump’s Reelection Campaign
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s reelection effort has reported spending at least $12 million more for digital ads than platforms like Facebook and Instagram have received for running them.
Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and their joint fundraising committees have spent $58.9 million for internet ads and related costs between May 2018 through this March, while digital platforms in that period received approximately $47.4 million, according to a HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings and a database compiled by New York University.
How much of that gap represents salaries of digital ad makers and their expenses and how much is profit for the consultants who own the firms is unclear, thanks to the committees’ decision to run vast amounts of spending through private companies, rather than making direct payments to each of the recipient entities. …
The Trump campaign is obfuscating its spending thanks to a loophole that the FEC has failed to close. Unlike payments to credit card companies, which must be itemized by individual vendor, payments to consultants who then outsource the work do not have to be broken out, said Paul Ryan, a campaign finance lawyer with Common Cause.
“The lack of transparency to the public is a problem,” he said.