Donald Trump announced Thursday he has forgiven $50 million in loans he made to his own campaign as he ramps up fundraising.
“[Trump] loaned $50 million to the campaign. He’s now forgiven that loan. So that is a contribution,” campaign national finance chair Steve Munchin told CNBC Thursday. “[Trump] has also said he will contribute significantly more money.”
The Trump campaign soon followed up with an official statement stating “the money is a contribution made in order to ‘make America great again,'” and that Trump has now “personally invested in excess of $50 million to the future of the country.”
The presumptive GOP nominee often boasts on the campaign trail that unlike other politicians he is able to self-fund his campaign, but in recent weeks he has began soliciting donations to gear up for the general election battle against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In the same statement, the Trump campaign said that since launching their fundraising efforts they have been “overwhelmed with contributions for the Republican Party” and they will “continue to ensure the campaign has all of the resources necessary to defeat Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in November.”
Federal Elections Commission filings do not yet reflect the campaign’s claim that Trump forgave the $50 million loan.
The FEC confirmed seeing Trump’s statement but had not yet received updated filings from the campaign.
