Washington - US President-elect
Donald Trump pumped a total of $66 million of his own money into
his campaign - far from the $100 million he frequently boasted
he was going to spend, according to campaign finance disclosures
filed on Thursday night.
Trump-related business industries - those bearing his own
name, including his private jet and the Manhattan building that
served as his campaign headquarters - received $11 million in
payments from his campaign.
Trump shocked the political world when he defeated
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election for the
White House, overcoming a spending deficit and outperforming
polls in several swing states to propel him to victory.
Earlier this week, Trump's campaign revealed that he sold
his entire stock portfolio in June, a holding that was estimated
at about $40 million.
Opting to liquidate his assets could have been a move to
pump cash into his campaign, which at the time was struggling to
raise funds from private donors. The move to sell his stocks
came weeks after he forgave about $47 million in loans he had
already given his campaign.
In total, Trump raised $339 million and spent $322 million -
a far cry from the $565 million spent by Clinton, according to
the latest Federal Election Commission disclosure reports. Trump
spent $94 million in the final days of the campaign, compared
with the $132 million spent by Clinton.
Trump frequently promised to run a shoe-string campaign and
argued his self-funding model meant he wasn't obligated to any
special interests.
He blasted polling as a useless art and pollsters as a waste
of money as he overcame 16 Republican foes during the primary
election season in early 2016. Trump rode to victory on more
than $5 billion in "free" television on news programs that
provided wall-to-wall coverage of his every word, according to
data analytics firm mediaQuant.
But when the realities of the general election began to sink
in - and Trump's poll numbers sank - he shifted and began
spending money on polling and television ads.
In total, Trump spent $107 million on advertising, including
television ads, and another $85 million in digital and online
advertising. His second largest expense was air travel, totaling
$26 million and accounting for more campaign spending than his
payroll.