特朗普 第一个在竞选中赚钱的总统候选人

Donald J. Trump regularly boasts that he is self-funding his presidential bid, but new campaign finance filings show that he is also shifting plenty of money back to himself in the process.

唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)经常标榜自己开展总统竞选活动的资金是自筹的，但新的竞选财务报备文件显示，他还在这个过程中把大量资金返还给了自己。

According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Trump, whose campaign has just $1.3 million cash on hand, paid at least $1.1 million to his businesses and family members in May for expenses associated with events and travel costs. The total represents nearly a fifth of the $6 million that his campaign spent in the month.

提交给联邦选举委员会（Federal Election Commission，简称FEC）的文件显示，目前只有130万美元现金的特朗普竞选团队，今年5月向他的企业和家庭成员支付了至少110万美元，具体涉及参加活动的费用和差旅费。他的竞选团队在5月总支出600万美元，这笔钱在其中占了差不多五分之一。

The spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and some of Mr. Trump’s critics who have questioned whether the presumptive Republican nominee, who points to his business acumen as a case for his candidacy, is trying to do what he has suggested he would in 2000 when he mulled making an independent run: “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

这些支出让竞选活动财务专家和特朗普的批评者皱起了眉头。共和党总统候选人特朗普把自己的商业头脑称为竞选优势，而批评者质疑他是否正在做他2000年时曾提到的事情，当时特朗普在考虑独立参加竞选，他说：“我非常有可能会成为第一个在竞选活动中赚到钱的总统候选人。”

“He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. “He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services.”

“如果他把竞选贷款偿还给自己，他可能最终就会盈利，”竞选法律中心(Campaign Legal Center)的高级顾问保罗·S·瑞安(Paul S. Ryan)说。“他可以拿回他所有的钱，外加竞选活动付钱购买他自己的商品和服务产生的利润。”

While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their F.E.C. filings, Mr. Trump’s is packed with payments to his various clubs and buildings, his fleet of planes and his family. The self-proclaimed billionaire is required by law to account for his spending this way to prevent his companies from making illegal corporate donations to his campaign. In 2017, about $2.7 million was paid to at least seven companies Mr. Trump owns or to people who work for his real estate and branding empire, repaying them for services provided to his campaign.

大多数候选人在向FEC提交的文件中都列出了提供商品和服务的供应商名单，而特朗普的文件中写满了支付给他的各种俱乐部、物业、飞机和家人的钱。法律要求这位自称的亿万富翁以这种方式解释他的支出，以防他的公司非法向他的竞选活动提供企业捐款。在2017年，竞选团队支付了约270万美元给特朗普旗下的至少七家公司，或是给那些为他的地产和品牌帝国效力的人，用以购买相关的服务。

In May, the biggest-ticket item was Mr. Trump’s use of the Mar-a-Lago Club, his Florida resort, which was paid $423,000. The campaign paid $350,000 to TAG Air for his private airplanes, $125,000 to Trump Restaurants and more than $170,000 to Trump Tower, the Manhattan skyscraper that houses the campaign’s headquarters.

今年5月，最大的一笔开支是特朗普使用他在佛罗里达的度假村“马阿拉歌庄园”(Mar-a-Lago)的费用，为42.3万美元。竞选团队还为他使用私人飞机支付了35万美元给TAG Air公司，向特朗普酒店(Trump Restaurants)支付12.5万美元，向曼哈顿的特朗普大厦(Trump Tower)支付逾17万美元；他的竞选总部就设在这栋大楼里。

Mr. Trump’s family also profited from the campaign last month, with his son Eric’s Virginia wine business taking in about $1,300.

特朗普的家人也从竞选活动中赚了钱，上个月，团队向他儿子艾瑞克(Eric)在弗吉尼亚经营的葡萄酒企业支付了1300美元。

And Mr. Trump, who has said he will not take a salary if he is elected president, paid himself $3,085 in May. The disbursements are related to travel expenses, according to the filings.

特朗普曾表示，如果自己当上总统，任职期间不会拿任何薪水，但5月份他给自己开了3085美元。从文件看，这笔钱和差旅费有关。

Mr. Ryan said that the extent to which Mr. Trump was utilizing his own businesses for his run was uNPRecedented and that because of his unique financial circumstances, he was wading into territory that went beyond the F.E.C.’s guidance.

瑞安说，特朗普在竞选活动中对自己的生意的利用是前所未有的，而且由于他独特的财务状况，这种做法超出了FEC的指导范围。

“We don’t have clear answers,” Mr. Ryan said. “Historically, candidates would separate themselves from their business interests when running for office. Trump has done the opposite by promoting his businesses while running for office.”

“我们没有明确的答案，”瑞恩说。“从历史上看，候选人在竞选公职的时候，会对自己的商业利益采取避嫌的做法。而特朗普恰恰相反，他竞选公职的时候还在推广自己的生意。”

While candidates often gain notoriety from running for president, they are barred from enriching themselves directly from their campaigns. When a campaign buys copies of a candidate’s book in bulk and distributes them, for example, the candidate cannot accept royalties from the purchases. However, Mr. Ryan notes that the F.E.C. does allow candidates who own commercial property to rent it from themselves at fair market rates, as Mr. Trump has regularly done. Mr. Trump’s use of his branded water and steaks falls into something of a gray area.

虽然竞选总统经常给竞选人招致恶名，但他们被禁止直接通过竞选活动中饱私囊。例如，如果竞选团队批量购买候选人写的书，分发它们，候选人不能从这种采购中获得版税。然而，瑞安指出，FEC确实允许那些拥有商业物业的候选人，以公平的市场价格，把它们出租给竞选活动，特朗普就常常这么做。特朗普使用自己品牌的饮用水和牛排的方式属于一种灰色地带。

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an election law expert at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said that Mr. Trump did not appear to be violating any campaign finance laws, but that he could face more scrutiny over the use of his businesses for campaign purposes now that he is more explicitly asking supporters to donate money for to campaign.

席亚拉·托雷斯-斯拜里希(Ciara Torres-Spelliscy)是纽约大学布伦南正义中心(New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice)的选举法专家，她说，特朗普并未违反任何竞选财务法，但他现在更加明确地要求支持者捐钱给他的竞选活动了，所以他在竞选活动中使用自己的产品和服务就应该面临更多的关注。

“It is something to keep an eye on, because as soon as you start using campaign money that has come in from donors, not just the money that he has loaned to himself, and he uses it for something that he will personally keep, or his family will personally keep, that is what crosses the line.”

“这是值得注意的事情，因为一旦你开始使用来自捐助者的竞选资金，而不仅仅是你自己贷款给自己的钱，且用这些钱来购买自己或家人拥有的东西，那就越过了界限。”

Whether Mr. Trump could end up profiting from his campaign remains a subject of speculation; some have questioned if he will eventually ask for the more than $40 million that he has lent to his campaign to be repaid. The eventual effect of the campaign on Mr. Trump’s personal brand, which he has said represents a large part of his wealth, also remains unclear.

人们仍在推测，特朗普是否最终可以从他的竞选活动中获利；他贷款给自己的竞选活动4000万美元，有人质疑他是否最终会要求连本带息地偿还这笔钱。特朗普曾表示，个人品牌是自己财富的很大一部分，而这场竞选对其个人品牌的最终影响目前也仍不清楚。

Democrats on Tuesday tried to seize on the payments Mr. Trump made to his businesses as evidence of hypocrisy. Commenters on the liberal website Daily Kos ridiculed Mr. Trump for running a “scampaign” and overstating the personal investment he was making in his campaign by funneling the money back to his empire.

民主党人周二试图抓住特朗普付钱给自己的企业这一点，证明他的虚伪。自由派网站Daily Kos上的评论者嘲笑特朗普“谋财骗选”(scampaign)，通过将资金输送回自己的商业帝国，夸大了自己对竞选的个人投资。

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee and Mr. Trump’s main rival this fall, also piled on, taking to Twitter on Tuesday to jab him over the expenditures and his relatively paltry fund-raising sum in one swipe. “What is Trump spending his meager campaign resources on?” she said. “Why, himself, of course.”

特朗普在今年秋天的主要对手、稳获民主党总统提名的希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)也加入了进来，于周二在Twitter上针对他这些开支和相比之下微不足道的筹资额一并进行攻击。“特朗普把他微薄的竞选资源用在了什么地方？”她说。“呃，当然是他自己身上。”