Donald Trump’s presidential campaign spent more money than it took in last month, raising $8.8 million while spending more than $11 million, and his “Save America” PAC raised $8.5 million with $3.9 million in expenditures, nearly $3 million of which went to legal fees, according to the Daily Beast‘s review of FEC records.
A leadership PAC is typically designed to “spread the wealth” around to help underfunded candidates from the deep-pockets of the top-line candidate, but Trump has been using Save America PAC to fund his legal defense in his legal cases. Save America PAC is now primarily reliant on repayments from Trump’s old MAGA PAC to keep itself funded. It also gains money by taking 10% of funds raised by Trump’s joint fundraising committee, with the rest of the money going directly to the campaign. Save America PAC had more than $30 million at the start of 2023.
Trump is also splintering his fundraising efforts by now pulling his campaign donors to buy other products like sneaker, perfume and NFTs that will ultimately become worthless. Plus, as many of Trump 2020 team head to court dates, their teams will be hitting up the same donor pool–both individuals and larger–to fund their defenses.