Company Allegedly Spent Bailout Funds On Billboards

CNN reports:

The billboards began popping up along a desert stretch of highway in Arizona and California in early August — plastered with “Make America Great Again!” in large capital letters or an image of President Donald Trump looking up to the sky and giving a big thumbs up. The small company that funded the large billboards had just months earlier received a large cash infusion backed by the same administration now being celebrated, public records show.

Jones 1 Inc. was approved for a loan of between $150,000 and $350,000 at the end of April through the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was set up to help struggling small businesses save jobs during the pandemic. The company, which owns a small Shell gas station and travel center in Needles, California, went on to lease “six beautiful Trump billboards” near the border of California and Arizona, which a local group of Republicans heralded — thanking “a generous Trump supporter.”

The owner claims he did spend the bailout money on payroll. But somehow he was flush enough to also rent six giant billboards. Hit the link.