Donald Trump hires 'Mad Men' for his campaign
On Monday night, the Trump campaign filed its monthly Federal Election Commission campaign disclosure report for May. The headline was that his fundraising was anemic and he finished the month with just $1.3 million on hand, a pittance for a presidential nominee.
But buried in Trump’s 1699-page report was something much weirder. The Trump campaign made $35,000 in payments to an entity called “Draper Sterling” for “web advertising.” … Draper and Sterling, of course, are the fictional names of the two lead characters in Mad Men, the hit AMC show about advertising.
You may think it strange that Trump paid $35,000 to fictional characters. But it seems that Draper Sterling did briefly exist, and the true nature of their business is one Trump understands well.
The only other apparent public mention of Draper Sterling effectively accuses it of being a scam that helps perpetrate legally questionable activity.
It comes from an FEC complaint against an entity called “Patriots For America,” a federal super PAC seeking to influence the Missouri governor’s race. The complaint, filed on May 12 by an economics professor named Aaron Hedlund, alleges that Patriots For America listed no receipts or disbursements on its FEC filings, yet sent out direct mail.
Donald Trump’s disclosure shows $45 million in loans to himself, all of which have a due date of the end of this year. It has $6 million worth of payments directly to Trump-owned companies. And it shows $45,000 in salary paid out directly to Donald J. Trump over the course of a month. How many candidates take a salary from their campaign that works out to more than $500,000 a year? How many candidates take a salary at all?
So, sure. Fantasy organization that’s been outed as scam artists illegally spamming mailboxes in Missouri? Why not?