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.
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.
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.”
“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.”
While most candidates list an array of vendors providing goods and services on their 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 2015, 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.
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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.
Mr. Trump’s family also profited from the campaign last month, with his son Eric’s Virginia wine business taking in about $1,300.
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.
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 commission’s guidance.
“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.”
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While candidates often gain recognition 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 election commission 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.
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 to the campaign.
“It is something to keep an eye on,” she said, “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.”
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.
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.
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.”
