As Donald Trump confronts serious legal challenges, the former president can take some solace in the fact that his indictments haven’t undermined his support from Republican voters. On the contrary, he seems to have benefited politically from being charged with many felonies, and he now appears to be the prohibitive frontrunner for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.
But for Trump and his team, that’s the good news. The bad news is that his legal troubles are costing a fortune. The New York Times reported:
Former President Donald J. Trump’s political action committee, which began last year with $105 million, now has less than $4 million left in its account after paying tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for Mr. Trump and his associates.
To appreciate the scope of the financial difficulties, consider the apparent fact that different parts of Trump’s operation are starting to move money around in unexpected ways. The former president’s Save America PAC, for example, already directed funds to an allied super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., with the expectation that the money would go toward primary-season advertising.
Instead, the PAC has asked the super PAC to give $60 million back, in order to ease the once-flush Save America operation’s financial strains.
NBC News’ report on the latest filings added:
Trump’s Save America PAC has spent more than $20 million on legal fees alone — doling out payments to more than 40 different law firms — in the first six months of 2023, according to new campaign finance reports filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission. Legal expenditures accounted for two-thirds of the PAC’s total spending from January through June.
It might be tempting to think that the former president’s two indictments — and counting — are chiefly responsible for these enormous costs, but they only tell part of the larger story: The Save America operation hasn’t just been paying Trump’s legal expenses, it’s also picked up the tab for the lawyers representing the former president’s associates in the investigations. Supporters of the former president who donated to his leadership PAC, assuming the money would be spent on election-related expenses, are now learning otherwise. It’s against this backdrop that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ operation has started to accuse Team Trump of relying on sketchy fundraising tactics — the phrase “MAGA grandmas were scammed” stood out for me — which seems like a potentially potent line of attack. That said, the former president and his team have confronted credible allegations of grift for many years, and to date, Trump’s followers have continued to send him money anyway.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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