Donald Trump Campaign Spending More on Rent
Donald Trump’s campaign is spending more on rent as it transitions to the general election.
According to FEC filings, the Republican nominee’s rent at his campaign headquarters in Trump Towers went from about $35,000 to almost $170,000 between April and July of this year.
The Trump campaign paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,457 for rent in April. In May, the rent jumped to $72,800, and in June it was up again to $110,684. By July, Trump’s campaign paid $169,758.
A campaign spokesperson said the increase was due to an expansion of the space they occupy in the building.
“We calculated the rent based on the average rent per square foot in the area,” the spokesperson said in an email to TIME. “The campaign expanded from part of a single floor by adding the entirety of two separate floors.”
The spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions about when they expanded or how many square feet they occupy, but the primary campaign headquarters were famously makeshift, with a small staff and a low overheard.
Read More: Inside the Quirky Campaign Headquarters of Trump, Clinton and Sanders
The Huffington Post, which originally reported the story, noted that between March and July Trump transitioned from largely self-funding his campaign to active fundraising, and that his paid staff actually decreased during that time.
But a Trump spokesperson countered that they “still pay over $40,000 less in rent than the Clinton campaign.” Clinton’s campaign headquarters takes up two floors of a Brooklyn office building and pays $211,750 per month, according to FEC filings.
