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Donald Trump’s donors have paid more than $76mn on his legal fees since January 2023, about 26 per cent of the total raised for the ex-president, in the latest sign that his court battles are draining cash from his election campaign.
At the same time political groups, including super political action committees (pacs), supporting Joe Biden have raised much more than pro-Trump groups — $413mn vs $326mn — according to federal disclosures released over the weekend.
Biden groups have $188mn cash on hand while Trump groups have $122mn — a difference close to the sum the latter spent on legal advice.
“Donald Trump simply cannot keep up with Joe Biden: he’s too lazy to campaign, too toxic to generate enthusiasm or grassroots support, and too obsessed with his own personal revenge and retribution to expand his coalition,” said Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer. “Open your eyes, Donald, the campaign has begun.”
Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, rallied Republicans around him to great effect in the GOP primary. But his legal challenges pose a threat to his general election campaign’s finances.
Trump is narrowly leading Biden in five swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — according to RealClearPolitics’ average of polls — and in effect tied in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But about half of Americans would consider Trump unfit for office if found guilty of a crime, according to an Associated Press poll.
“THEY’RE NOT AFTER ME, THEY’RE AFTER YOU,” said Trump on his campaign website. “I’M JUST STANDING IN THE WAY!”
Trump faces four criminal cases and a civil fraud case that threatens his business empire.
In the first criminal case, the Manhattan district attorney accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up “hush money” payments to a porn star before the 2016 election. In the second, Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, including information on US nuclear programmes. The third and fourth cases — one federal, one in Georgia — allege Trump conspired to subvert the 2020 election. The former president has vigorously refuted all of the criminal charges against him.
Trevor Traina, a Trump donor who served as the ex-president’s US ambassador to Austria, told the Financial Times that the next fundraising report beginning in April “will tell a very different story” and claimed inflation under Biden hurt working class Trump donors.
Biden has been able to fundraise for many months with the Democratic National Committee, allowing him to raise more money per individual for his re-election, while Trump has only been able to fundraise with the Republican National Committee after securing enough delegates in March.
“Even though he was in the lead, Trump had to make it through a primary,” said Traina. “Biden has had the benefit of leading his party and all its apparatus.”
The prosecutions against Trump helped him in the Republican presidential primary, as even his rivals came to his defence. Last year, Trump’s fundraising and support among Republicans grew after news of each of the four criminal cases.
Trump received his biggest influx of small donations on August 25, after he surrendered to authorities in Atlanta on felony charges that he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia — and fundraised off this mug shot.
But there are signs that Trump’s small dollar army has shrunk; he has about 270,000 fewer unique donors at this stage in the campaign compared to four years earlier.
The ex-president will also spend more time in court just as he needs to campaign against Biden ahead of November’s election.
Jury selection recently began in the Manhattan hush money case. After hours in a dingy room on Tuesday, Trump visited a small store in Harlem to rally against crime in the city.
“We’re doing better now than we’ve ever done,” said Trump about his trial. “I think it’s having a reverse effect.”
