Donald Trump’s campaign has shelled out $35,000 to an advertising agency called “Draper Sterling,” which is a name oddly similar to a fictional ad agency on AMC drama “Mad Men.”
ThinkProgress‘ Judd Legum was the first to raise an eyebrow when looking at the Trump campaign’s most recent FEC filing. The document (pictured below) shows the campaign made three $10,000 payments to Draper Sterling for “web advertising” during the primary race, while Legum also reported a fourth payment for $5,000.
The address listed for Draper Sterling is a house in New Hampshire, which happens to be a short distance from the hometown of recently fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. The name of the agency in “Mad Men” is Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak tweeted on Monday night that the Trump campaign is conducting a forensic audit of Lewandowski’s spending. Lewandowski was fired on Monday after Trump’s children reportedly clashed with the controversial campaign manager.
Trump’s campaign appears to have paid Draper Sterling for “web advertising,” but an Internet search does not reveal an actual company with that name.
Trump’s campaign issued a statement regarding the FEC filing, but it makes no mention of Don Draper’s firm.
“The month of June represents the first full month of fundraising activity for the campaign and this will be reflected in the June FEC report. The campaign held its first campaign fundraising event on May 25th, 2016. To date, the campaign’s fundraising has been incredible and we continue to see a tremendous outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and money to the Republican Party. The positive response to our fundraising efforts so far is a further indication that the country does not want yet another corrupt politician like Crooked Hillary,” the Trump campaign said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Trump report includes three 10K payments to "Draper Sterling" for advertising
Who is going break it to him that it's a fictional ad agency?
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 21, 2016
This is the address listed for "Draper Sterling," the entity Trump paid $35,000 in May for advertising pic.twitter.com/TnDDf0OPyY
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 21, 2016
Lots of people asking if I'm joking about Trump's 35K in payments to an ad firm called "Draper Sterling"
I'm not pic.twitter.com/NMBXKjNLLn
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 21, 2016