Donald Trump leads the presidential field in campaign donations, sitting at around $53 million over the first six months of the year.
However, those funds are getting used up for things other than his campaign.
To that point, reports are surfacing that Trump’s campaign is starting to run low on funds, and we are a long way from the finish line, reported Time Magazine.
No Big Money Donors
A significant portion of Trump’s campaign funds have been spent on his legal fees. There were reports last week that estimated roughly 75 percent of all donations were used for legal bills.
When the FEC reports were released, that number went down to about 47 percent, which is still a hefty chunk of the money. Insiders say there was some creative accounting going on, however, with the number being closer to almost $40 million being used for legal fees.
The reports that surfaced were so damaging, Trump allies immediately launched a legal fund to help Trump pay for his legal bills so they could stop siphoning money from the PAC. The new fund will be called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung announced the fund, stating, “The weaponized Department of Justice and the deranged Jack Smith have targeted innocent Americans associated with President Trump.
“In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, a new legal defense fund will help pay for their legal fees,” reported AP News.
Since January 21, Trump-affiliated PACs have paid out $59.2 million in legal fees, which is right there in the FEC documents to see if you want to look at them. This is not a conspiracy theory to those of you that think I am attacking Trump… I am just pointing out where the donations are actually going.
Which leads me to the next point… are Trump supporters okay with footing the bill for Trump’s legal problems rather than the money going to support this actual campaign? If they are, fantastic, keep donating, but if they are not, is this money train going to dry up even further?
This is a big problem when you consider all the big money donors, at least for the most part, are avoiding Trump like the plague right now.
To that point, Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance attorney in DC, stated, “I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s no legal issue. It’s really just a question for his donors: Do they want to be funding lawyers?”
To be clear, legally, Trump is not doing anything wrong here, but it is an eye test problem if donors feel they are being deceived.
Trump is not alone with campaign finance woes, as Ron DeSantis’ campaign has also burned through a ton of cash, to the point that DeSantis was forced to lay off about a third of his staff to trim costs.
This is why I keep insisting that this primary is far from over.
Let’s just pump the brakes on speculation until, at the very least, we get to South Carolina, but more likely, the completion of Super Tuesday.
Something tells me this race will be far tighter than anyone thinks or is predicting right now.
