All of the cost of providing lawyers for the many Trump criminal investigations have cost his super PAC more money than it is taking in.
Save America, the former president’s PAC, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a filing expected Monday, said the people familiar with the filing, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been made public.
That total is more than any other expense the PAC has incurred during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and, according to federal filings from earlier this month, more than Trump’s campaign raised in the second quarter of 2023. It will bring the PAC’s post-presidential legal spending to about $56 million, as Trump faces a federal indictment in Florida, state charges in New York, and the prospect of additional criminal indictments in Washington and Fulton County, Ga.
The number citied above is only for Trump’s legal expenses. It does not include any other PAC spending. Trump has treated his super PAC like his personal slush fund. His previous PAC paid his wife Melania six figures for ‘design consulting.’ The problem for Trump is that every dollar that the super PAC has to use on lawyers is a dollar less that can be spent on expenses for his 2024 campaign. Those rallies aren’t cheap.
Biden trounced Trump in recent campaign fundraising.
Trump ran out of money during the 2020 presidential election, which could happen again in 2024. The same scenario could play out again next fall where Biden and Democrats dominate the airwaves because Trump has sucked up most of the Republican small donor dollars, burned through his cash, and Republicans find themselves unable to compete in close races.
Trump’s legal woes are draining resources out of his political machine, and the consequences may be felt by Republican next year.