Donald Trump lent himself US $5 million in January

Real estate tycoon Donald J Trump lent his presidential campaign nearly US $5 million in January, increasing his total loans to US $17.5 million, according to the latest campaign finance report filed by the Republican front-runner.

Trump spent nearly US $11.5 million in January, about what he had spent over the previous six months, New York Times quoted his latest filings with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday as saying.
The bulk of the spending, over US $7 million, appears to have been for television ads. He did not begin airing election ads until around the holidays.

Other expenditures were the campaign's reams of red hats emblazoned with his slogan, "Make America Great Again," as well as lawn signs and bumper stickers.

He showed no payments for any internal polling. He frequently boasts that, unlike other candidates, he does not need to conduct polls because the news media, in effect, does it for him for free, the report said.

69-year-old Trump once boasted that he was self-funding his campaign, and more recently began acknowledging that he was receiving donations. He raised nearly US $950,000 from contributors in January, the filings show. Trump is the chairman and president of The Trump Organisation and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts.