Former President Donald Trump’s political committees have raised about $24 million in the past three months, a staggering number to be sure. But an analysis of his records shows that the former president involved also spent more than $37 million over the same period, and a net loss of about $13 million.
In real terms, Trump’s fundraising last quarter was actually close to $3.6 million — that’s how much he actually raised for his two main committees, which he could have use for things like political activism, events, legal fees, and enrich your business. But while those two committees grossed about $3.6 million, they also spent about $15.5 million on operational costs.
Those losses don’t stop Trump’s allies brag to the media that the ongoing federal investigation into his hoard of government records is playing out as a political and financial victory, claiming that legal opposition has only invigorated the establishment His MAGA. In fact, they didn’t tell the whole story — the twice-impeached former president cashed in all the way, while seemingly struggling to convert small-dollar donors.
A spokesman for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
This analysis is based on recent Federal Election Commission records from three of Trump’s active fundraising committees. Over the past three months, these groups have spent a total of $23 million on fundraising-related services. Taking into account those expenses alone, Trump walked away with more than $1 million. But his other expenses took a big hit – legal fees alone cost him $7.5 million – leaving him with a loss of $13 million, all told.
Because these three committees are all connected and share money, it can be difficult to cut to the truth. For example, Fox News ran a article this week incorrectly claimed that one of his committees raised $24.7 million this quarter, when it only raised about $3.3 million.
But if we want to know about Trump’s real bottom line, we have to look at just two of the three groups.
One is The notorious leader PAC “Save America” (Save America), and the other is Trump’s old campaign committee, now called “Make America Great Again PAC” (MAGA PAC). Those committees make political spending.
According to the FEC report, Save America and MAGA PAC raised a total of more than $3.6 million in donations last quarter — a far cry from $24 million.
That’s because $24 million was raised by a third group, a joint fundraising organization called the “Save America Joint Fundraising Committee” (SAJFC), which handles nearly all of the fundraising. of Trump.
The only real purpose SAJFC serves is to act as a middleman. It did not engage in political activism, but instead raised money directly from low-dollar donors and split the proceeds between two other Trump groups. And records show that almost every dollar of the $3.6 million that Save America and MAGA PAC raised over the past three months has come from that group.
But even though SAJFC raised $24 million, it took $22 million to get there. And like The Daily Beast report as of Thursday, more than $20 million of that spending went to services to help Trump raise money — things like web and text advertising, digital consulting, direct mail , sponsor list, online sales fee, etc.
Because of that high cost, SAJFC was only able to transfer a few million dollars to two groups that actually promote Trump’s political activism — paying for his rallies and other events, buying political ads , finance legal costs and give money to MAGA allies and friendly outside groups.
Even if SAJFC had transferred every last dollar in its account to those groups, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The committee has only one 6.2 million dollars in the bank, not nearly enough to cover the overall deficit of $13 million.
Of course, Trump still owns a huge pile of cash. Save America has about 92 million dollars cash, which Trump could use to influence allies, line his pockets, take stock of his assets is likely a 2024 presidential candidate and stave off challengers within the party. That’s almost three times more than Republican National Committee. (Save America made a federal political contribution last month—100,000 dollars for Cyclists for Trump.)
However, an unusually high spending-to-deposit ratio adds credibility to the concerns that, as Republicans in general have raised more money, Trump’s own efforts are growing more shaky and unsustainable. After years of lobbying supporters with fundraising requests, he may indeed be having a hard time finding donors willing and able to give him money.
On that point, it’s worth noting that much of the $1.2 million for MAGA PAC – Trump’s former campaign – hasn’t been raised recently.
More than $800,000 some of that came from old donations that had sat on another inactive committee for almost two years. They date as early as November 4, 2020 — the day after the election. As of September 30, Trump’s old campaign only had about 1.1 million dollars on hand.
