This story has been updated
After railing against a “corrupt” fundraising system in the Republican primaries, Donald Trump now says he will raise hundreds of millions of dollars to compete in the general election.
But the new money Trump raises is available not only for future campaigning — it can also go directly into Trump’s pocket, reimbursing him for his personal spending in the primaries.
Trump aides say that option is not currently under discussion, NBC News has learned, but they also decline to rule out the possibility entirely.
After this article was published Friday, Trump said he is ruling out the possibility, telling MSNBC, “I have absolutely no intention of paying myself back for the nearly $50 million dollars I have loaned to the campaign.” Trump’s estimate appears to include additional money he loaned the campaign that has yet to be filed with the FEC, and he told msnbc all of the loans are “a contribution made in order to ‘Make America Great Again.’”
The Trump Campaign has not actually converted the loans into a contribution, according to the FEC. After this article was published Friday, aides told MSNBC they expect to make that formal change “in the near future.”
Legally, Trump has the option of recouping any or all of the money he spent on the primaries.
RELATED: The Clinton strategy against ‘Trumponomics’
That is because Trump almost never directly donates funds to his campaign. He has only spent about $317,000 of his own money outright.
The rest of his personal spending is structured as a loan to the campaign, which now owes Trump $35.9 million.
Those loans comprise about 75 percent of the campaign’s total funds. Another 25 percent are from individual donations during the primaries. (The numbers are from the campaign’s most recent filing, required under federal election law.)
Loans and Payback
The main reason candidates use loans to fund their campaigns, election law experts tell MSNBC, is to maintain an option to pay themselves back later.
Former FEC general counsel Larry Noble believes that’s the case with Trump.
“He loaned himself money — as opposed to contributing it — with the idea that he would pay himself back,” says Noble, who is now general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center.
On the stump, Trump regularly invokes his choice to self-fund as crucial to his independence.
“I’m self-funding my campaign,” he said at an April rally in Rhode Island. “Let me tell you, the politicians will never do the job because they’re bought and paid for, folks.”
RELATED: Trump’s Longtime Butler Thinks Obama Should Be Hanged
By that logic, Trump would presumably refuse outside money to pay back his loans. The same logic, however, would suggest he wouldn’t take outside money in the general election — the path he is now on.
This week, two campaign sources told NBC that Trump will aggressively raise funds for the general election, and the campaign expects voters understand he has to do “whatever it takes” to win.
Asked about Trump’s loans in March, during the primaries, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told the A.P. “he is not going to repay himself.”
That was months before the campaign decided to take this outside money for the general election, however, opening up a vast new source of campaign funds.
Now, as Trump adjusts his funding plans as the nominee, some campaign officials are striking a more circumspect note.
RELATED: Can Donald Trump block Paul Ryan from chairing the RNC convention?
Paul Manafort, Trump’s convention manager, told MSNBC it is not the campaign’s “intention right now” to use fundraising to pay back the loans.
Asked if the option is off the table, Manafort says he has not discussed the idea with Trump, and the campaign’s focus is on spending for the future.
Another campaign aide tells MSNBC the possibility of Trump using donations to pay back his loans “is not being discussed or considered.” The aide declined to say the option is definitively off the table.
After this article was published Friday, Trump made his most unequivocal remarks on the issue since becoming the presumptive nominee, telling MSNBC he has “absolutely no intention” of getting reimbursed for his loans, which he now estimates total close to $50 million.








