Trump-endorsed trust-funder candidate busted for false claims about living paycheck to paycheck
On Tuesday, Business Insider reported that Trump-backed North Carolina congressional candidate Bo Hines has been making false claims about his personal finances to voters by heavily implying that he and his wife are living paycheck to paycheck when in fact, he doesn't even have a salary and lives off of a trust fund.
"At a Republican event in September, North Carolina congressional candidate Bo Hines bemoaned the state of the economy: 'Me and my wife, we can't afford to give up a month's salary,'" reported Hanna Kang. "He repeated this assertion in an interview earlier this month."
Specifically, Hines argued that "with 8.3 percent inflation, that is the equivalent of one month salary for the average American... I know in my household, my wife and I can't afford to give up one month's salary. We have bills to pay, we have rent to pay.'"
Business Insider did some digging, however, and found that Hines could, in fact, afford to give up one month's salary.
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"But the 27-year-old Republican upstart, backed by former President Donald Trump, reported having no salary at all, according to his certified personal financial disclosure, which he filed with congressional regulators on May 20," said the report. "In the disclosure, Hines reported no salary and no spousal assets, and asserted that he has not excluded any assets that belong to his wife, Mary Charles Hines. Axios' Lachlan Markay first noted Hines' financial situation, which includes no reported bank account or earned income and compensation, and zero loans or liabilities."
According to the report, Hines' only source of income is a trust fund known as the Hines Children's Trust, from which he reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million in income in the last year. He has spent $925,000 in his own money on his campaign.
Hines, a 26-year-old former college football player, is in a competitive open race in North Carolina against Democratic state Sen. Wiley Nickel. His endorsement by Trump was controversial among some local Republicans in the primary, due to his living two hours away from the district.
He previously generated controversy by calling for defunding the FBI following the search on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, although he later tried to backtrack on this.