To go all nostalgic for a moment…again Trump is padding the books by paying himself out of his PAC.

Tenants at Trump Tower have been floundering, which means he’s not collecting those high high rents.

But through all that — as Trump Tower has dealt with imploding tenants, political backlash and a broader, pandemic-related slump in Manhattan office leasing since last year — it has been able to count on one reliable, high-paying tenant: former president Donald Trump’s own political operation.

Starting in March, one of his committees, Make America Great Again PAC, paid $37,541.67 per month to rent office space on the 15th floor of Trump Tower — a space previously rented by his campaign — according to campaign-finance filings and a person familiar with the political action committee.

This may not be the most efficient use of donors’ money: The person familiar with Trump’s PAC said that its staffers do not regularly use the office space. Also, for several months, Trump’s PAC paid the Trump Organization $3,000 per month to rent a retail kiosk in the tower’s lobby — even though the lobby was closed.

Sly. Of course it’s not efficient, it’s not meant to be efficient. The word you need is lucrative. It’s money in Trump’s pocket. Efficiency is neither here nor there.

Trump is continuing a practice that was a hallmark of his presidency by exploiting loose regulations — and his own supporters’ trust — to convert political donations into private revenue for himself.

So surprising!

The fraudulence and hucksterism of this bit are particularly shiny.

One floor up from Marcraft, on Trump Tower’s 19th floor, are the offices of the Legacy Business School, which once boasted Kris Jenner as its chairwoman. (She reportedly resigned a few months after the school opened in 2016.) The school is expensive — its $70,000 annual tuition is $19,000 higher than Harvard University’s.

But Harvard doesn’t hold classes in Trump Tower.

“It is not just an educational campus,” the school’s website says, making the tower one of its main selling points. “It is studying at the most powerful building in the world.”

laugh-vomit

Never mind your Harvard in those boring educational unpowerful old brick buildings in Cambridge. Yuck. For a mere 19k a year more you can study in The Most Power Full Building!! Obviously that Power rubs off on you because of your mere presence in the Building – as long as you “study” [wink wink nudge nudge] inside it. Power Full Empowermenting Powery Buildings Forevaaaaaa!!!!

The “school” is a flop though, and owes Trump a lot of back rent. So much for Power.

But Trump still has the dear reliable PAC.

At Trump Tower, the former president’s PAC appears to be a quiet tenant. Under typical office conditions, with about one worker per 175 square feet, that much space might hold 30 people. But the PAC’s latest campaign-finance filing only listed three employees at that address as of June. And even those three don’t always work there, according to the person familiar with the PAC: They work from home, or follow Trump to his clubs in Palm Beach, Fla., and Bedminster, N.J.

Never you mind. They have to water the plants.