Former President Donald Trump has raised formidable sums, but his political operation is burning through money as his legal troubles mount, new filings show.
His joint fundraising committee brought in more than $53 million during the first six months of the year, but the committees associated with his 2024 White House bid have spent even more.
The high rate of spending is apparent in Trump’s leadership PAC, where more than 70% – or some $21 million – of its total disbursements during the first six months of the year went to pay the growing legal bills for Trump and his associates, a report filed on July 31 with federal regulators shows.
The leadership PAC, Save America, started July with a little more than $3.6 million remaining in its bank accounts – a fraction of the nearly $18.3 million in reserves it had at the start of the year – underscoring how much the wealthy former president has relied on political contributors to help him confront his growing legal challenges.
The financial toll of multiple Trump investigations has come into focus in recent days as sources within the Trump campaign confirmed that Save America had requested that an aligned super PAC supporting his presidential bid return $60 million to the leadership PAC.
Monday’s filing shows that the super PAC, dubbed Make American Great Again, Inc., had returned nearly $12.3 million – over four installments in May and June. Officials with the super PAC have not responded to inquiries about the refund request and whether it has sent back more money to the leadership PAC since June.
In all, the leadership PAC paid more than three dozen law firms during the first six months of the year.
Save America, which served as the main fundraising vehicle for Trump’s political operation immediately after he left the White House in 2021, ended that year flush with cash and ultimately sent tens of millions of dollars to the super PAC, also known as MAGA Inc. – providing seed money for the group to begin advertising on Trump’s behalf as he mounted his 2024 bid.
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