Trump's Banana Stand

Skeevy real estate moguls with deep financial and legal troubles need a backup plan.

Trump's campaign appears to be his backup plan.

From the Washington Post:

Donald Trump spent more than $1 million in May reimbursing his companies and family

By Matea Gold and Anu Narayanswamy June 21 at 12:43 AM

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Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, raised just $5.4 million in May, including $2.2 million that he loaned his campaign. Almost as startling was how little Trump had in the bank when June began: less than $1.3 million.

Where did it go? The real estate mogul does not have much of a ground operation yet or a significant paid media effort. But he managed to shell out $6.7 million last month, including more than $1 million in payments to Trump companies or to reimburse his family for travel expenses. Here are some of the campaign's biggest expenditures.

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Air charters: $838,774

Nearly $350,000 of the money spent on private jets went to Trump's own TAG Air.

Event staging and rentals: $830,482

This includes the fees for renting facilities such as the Anaheim Convention Center ($43,000) and the Fresno Convention Center ($24,715). But the biggest sum went to Trump's own Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., which was paid $423,317 for rental and catering. The Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., got $35,845, while the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fl., was paid $29,715. His son Eric Trump's wine company received nearly $4,000.

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Of course, the real pioneering work of in the field of campaign infrastructure three-card-Monte was done five years ago by America's own Teacher of the Rules of Civilization -- Newton Leroy Gingrich -- 

-- who sweet-talked crackpot wingnut billionaire Sheldon Adelson to underwrite Callista's book-and-merch tour dates by tarting them up as campaign stops:

Gingrich’s book-selling efforts test campaign laws

By Amy Gardner December 8, 2011

You would never know on the campaign trail that Newt Gingrich is no longer at the helm of his for-profit enterprise. There, his presidential candidate activities and book-selling business mingle as one.

In a hotel ballroom in Naples, Fla., last month, Gingrich regaled political supporters with a rousing stump speech — then sidled over to a table in the corner to sell books. In Charleston, S.C., a few days later, hundreds of fans crammed into a historic theater to listen to his pitch to be the next president — then lined up in the lobby to buy books.

The story is the same virtually everywhere Gingrich goes: a political speech here, a book-signing there — often in the same place. And Gingrich isn’t just selling one book. He has produced non­fiction, novels and documentary movies, and his wife, Callista, recently wrote a children’s book that she sells just about everywhere they go.

Their activities raise two appearances, both unsavory: that Gingrich is using his presidential bid to make money, and that he is using his business to juice his campaign. And although there is agreement that Gingrich is following the law, there remains a perception, in part because of how much money his businesses have earned him over the years, that what he’s doing isn’t quite right.

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The Party of Lincoln, ladies and gentlemen.