Jet-owning donors reap Trump-era rewards
Major donors to Donald Trump’s campaign have found a way to gain influence beyond writing massive checks.
WASHINGTON >> Ben Pogue, owner of a Texas construction company, provided the use of a private jet to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign last fall. Several months later, his father received a presidential pardon.
Like more than a dozen other big Republican donors, many whose businesses are af fected by Trump administration policy, he found a way to gain inf luence beyond simply writing a check. And, like many of them, he received some form of payback.
Records reviewed by The Associated Press show that donors with private aircraft have provided nearly $600,000 in private flights since July 2019 to Trump Victory, the president’s bigdollar fundraising committee led by Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News star who is dating Donald Trump Jr.
T he donations highlight the gulf between Trump’s promise to clean up Washington’s pay- toplay “swamp,” and the reality of his presidency.
While there is rarely a straight line between a donation and a desired result, the f light arrangements offered donors a valuable opportunity to interact with campaign officials. Some donors were recipients of government contracts. Others stood to benefit from regulatory changes or were awaiting a favor, like the clearing of Pogue’s father’s name.
“He turned ‘ the swamp’ into a gold-plated hot tub without a drain,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and former Trump fundraiser, who briefly served as White House communications director before being ousted.
Lobbyists, political groups and foreign governments have also racked up massive bills at his Washington hotel to curry favor. Taxpayers have shelled out an estimated $100 million from Trump’s own stays at his resorts, according to a recent report by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. And his administration has worked closely with industry groups, many of whom are major donors, to change regulations, which can yield millions in corporate profits.
To trace the f lights to specific donors, the AP reviewed campaign finance disclosures, federal spending data, state business filings and Federal Aviation Administration records.
Some donors provided relatively modest f light service, while others contributed tens of thousands of dollars in air time. The flights were often recorded as “in kind” contributions. In other cases, Trump Victory footed the bill, as required under election law.
Guilfoyle has drawn past scrutiny over her preference for f lying private. It’s unusual for campaign aides not traveling with the politician they work for to do so because the flights are expensive.
The Trump campaign said it paid market rates and that the jets were used to transport prominent surrogates, but campaign officials declined to say who was aboard. They did not make Guilfoyle available for an interview.
“The president’s supporters are willing to run through a brick wall for him, and any assistance with travel is merely a reflection of that enthusiasm and dedication to his reelection efforts,” spokeswoman Samantha Zager said.
For relatives of Paul Pog ue, the va lue wa s highly personal. The family mounted an aggressive campaign to secure a presidential pardon after he pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns in 2010 and was sentenced to three years of probation.