Donald Trump’s legal fees are depleting the campaign funds for the presidential election

Donald Trump has been spending millions of dollars, and some of his financial sources are running out quickly, as he confronts a flood of legal costs related to the investigations endangering his presidential campaign.

The former US president is in no financial binds; in fact, his joint fundraising committee raised $54 million in the first half of 2023, surpassing all of his competitors in the Republican primary for the election of 2024.

However, detractors claim that recent financial filings show how his mounting legal issues are significantly depleting a war chest that might be used for TV ads, rallies, and other campaign events as he runs for re-election.

After spending more than $20 million on legal expenses, the Save America political action group (PAC), which Trump formed, said this week that it will be down to its last $4 million by the end of June – loose change in terms of campaign financing.

There is little dispute that Trump has the right to spend a lot of money on attorneys, but Washington observers have questioned whether campaign supporters should be required to cover such costs.

According to lawyer and conservative political commentator A.G. Hamilton, “If you’re sending Trump money, it’s almost exclusively going to his personal legal fees.”

Which also means they will have almost no money left over to spend on voter turnout campaigns to compete with Democrats in crucial states.

Resources will be further stretched by Trump’s most recent indictment for his efforts to rig the 2020 election, with legal fees becoming his PAC’s biggest expenditure as the tycoon faces charges in Florida, New York, and Washington.

78 FELONY ACCUSES

Prior to last November, the Republican National Committee paid the majority of Trump’s legal expenses; however, they ceased doing so after he announced his run for president in 2024.

Prior to the Iowa caucuses in January, the first nominating contest of the primary season, his different political enterprises had around $32 million in cash on hand.

Only 10% of the funds raised by Trump go to Save America, which has been paying the legal fees for almost every member of Trump’s inner circle implicated in the investigations. The majority of the funds raised by Trump go straight to his presidential campaign.

The PAC, which receives the majority of its funding from small-dollar contributions, notified the Federal Election Commission that it has sent $21.6 million this year to law firms representing Trump and his friends, $5 million more than its entire legal budget for 2021 and 2022.

The former reality TV star, whose estimated net worth is $2.5 billion, begins the main season facing 78 charges in three different criminal investigations.

He is expected to be prosecuted in New York in March of next year on charges that he concealed “hush money” payments to a porn actress and to stand trial for his alleged improper management of national security secrets two months later.

He appeared in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing about his alleged election meddling, and it is anticipated that state prosecutors will soon file charges against him for the same alleged offenses in a different case centered on the southern state of Georgia.

‘RIPPED OFF’

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump started Save America and raised $250 million in only two months from supporters who were invited to give to a “election defense fund” to challenge the results.

‘Dangerous and aggressive’ language was used in fundraising emails that falsely claimed contributions could ‘Stop the Steal,’ according to a 2022 report by the congressional committee looking into Trump’s actions during the election.

None of the funds were used to pay for the recount and other election-related costs; instead, a significant portion was used to support Trump’s political war chest and the Republican National Committee.

“In short, President Trump and his campaign ripped off supporters by raising more than $250 million by claiming they wanted to fight fraud they knew did not exist and to challenge an election they knew he lost,” the committee said in its report.

His 2023 spending has given Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is now polling in a distant second place for the Republican nomination, a platform to challenge the front-runner’s objectives.

According to Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for DeSantis, “Trump has spent over $60 million on two things: falsely attacking DeSantis and paying his own legal fees, not a cent on defeating Biden.”

The “Patriot Legal Defense Fund” was established by a group of Trump supporters under the direction of political strategist Michael Glassner to cover the legal expenses incurred by members of the Trumpworld who are not related to or the former president himself.

Although the Trump team did not reply to a request for comment, it has previously claimed that money spent for legal expenses was helping “to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed.”