And the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, whose investors include billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, was paid $312,500 for “data management services” at the end of the year, bringing the total payments by the Trump campaign to nearly $6 million. A pro-Trump super PAC financed by Mercer paid the company another $231,000 in December.
Trump and the party also directed more than $413,000 in December to Trump properties or family members. Altogether, the campaign and the RNC spent more than $14 million on Trump hotels, office rental, airfare, catering and other expenses over the course of the election.
The Trump company that received the largest amount last month was Trump Tower, which was paid more than $130,000 for rent, down slightly from September and October, when the campaign spent nearly $170,000 to rent space there.
The RNC spent more than $111,000 in December on “venue rental and catering” at the new Trump International Hotel in Washington. Trump's campaign shelled out more than $37,000 to rent space at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., where he held post-election meetings with prospective Cabinet members. And it paid $74,000 to the Trump National Doral Miami for “facility rental” in late October and on Election Day.
Another big beneficiary in 2016: the GOP email list company Conservative Connector, which served as the RNC's main email list broker. The small Michigan-based firm, which had been paid more than $27 million as of Nov. 28, collected another $7.5 million from a Trump-RNC fundraising committee the following day, new filings show. ($35m)