Donald Trump's campaign spent $55,000 on his own books

Donald Trump used campaign money to buy thousands of copies of his own book, a move that experts are saying is suspicious and possibly illegal. A spokesperson for Trump explained to The Daily Beast that the books, bought from Barnes & Noble, were purchased "as part of gifting at the convention, which we have to do." Gift bags at the Republican convention indeed held copies of Trump's November 2015 release, Crippled America.

But that is where things start to get a little fishy. First of all, it is illegal to convert campaign funds into personal funds in any way, so Trump would be required to forgo any royalties he made off the purchase of those books. "What any author that I know would most likely do is go to the publisher and say, 'I want a bunch of these in the goody bag.' [The author would] come to the publisher and say he needed books for a charity or an event, and we would donate 500 all the time. And we'll sell more to you at a 40 percent discount," Ben Bruton, a publishing PR veteran, told The Daily Beast.

The fact that the purchases were made through Barnes & Noble adds another layer of intrigue. Book sales from Amazon or the book's publisher aren't looked at when composing bestseller lists; only purchases at brick-and-mortar locations like Barnes & Noble are.

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Trump's book failed to make the charts the week of the purchase. Still, The New York Times is aware of attempts to bulk-purchase books and has measures in place to count against it on their bestseller lists. "You can't just buy your way onto the bestsellers list," Bruton said, although he added, "I do believe that [Trump's purchase] was definitely an attempt to both make money and to get onto the bestseller list." Read the full scoop over at The Daily Beast.