Disgraced former President Trump's slush fund, which he spends on God knows what, has on and off over the last year and a half been blamed by Republican insiders for siphoning off small donor contributions for what should've been directed to the GOP's efforts to make gains in Congress this November. However Politico's review of donor data from WinRed – the GOP's digital money hole – in their words "partially exonerates" the fat orange bastard, as it shows that 13% of donors who used the platform contributed solely to his scam "Save America PAC" organization.
That said, it's obviously not nothing that Trump is diverting away from GOP campaigns that are actually on the ballot and it comes amid a larger downturn in Republican small donor recruitment on WinRed, which fell from 956,000 contributors in the second half of 2021 to 913,000 in the first half of 2022. Dems on ActBlue meanwhile went from 2 million to 2.5 million in the same two periods.
"Republicans have known for a long time that we were behind in online fundraising. There was always the assumption that we could catch up. Now we're learning that it's too late," Republican strategist Eric Wilson told Politico. "Guess we'll just have to do what we always do and rely on amoral billionaires to fund our campaigns," he did not add, but probably thought in his head.