During the 2024 campaign, former President Donald Trump successfully maintained his political operations by walking a fragile financial tightrope. The guilty verdict in the Manhattan hush-money case adds to a long list of legal challenges that have cost him more than $100 million in donations so far.
Campaign finance experts say a unique combination of fundraising tactics and legal maneuvers helped the Trump campaign escape financial woes that raised questions about his ability to compete in the race.
Since leaving the White House in 2020, Trump has exploited a little-known loophole in campaign finance laws to pay mounting legal bills, which have amounted to about $90,000 a day over the past three years, Federal Election Commission filings show.
Campaign revelations show that Trump used a network of political action committees (PACs) to funnel donations to the leadership PAC he founded called Save America, which largely paid for his legal fees. The groups are separate from his official campaign and are not subject to the same restrictions by the Federal Election Commission.
“This problem has been around for years, if not decades,” said Saurav Ghosh, campaign finance director at the Campaign Legal Center. “Leadership PACs are often used by candidates and public officials as some kind of bribery Funds, paying whatever they want without any oversight.”
It is not uncommon for political contributions to be used for legitimate purposes for candidates. President Joe Biden recently used donations from the Democratic National Committee to pay for attorneys in a classified documents case, documents show. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who is running for re-election and on trial for alleged bribery, has spent $2 million in campaign funds on legal services.
These practices are technically allowed under FEC rules because they relate to a candidate’s ability to run for office. For personal legal matters, such as Trump’s New York business fraud case, experts say the use of political donations is prohibited.
Ghosh said the FEC and Congress are unlikely to take enforcement action against Trump because both parties benefit from the practice.
“Trump is the most obvious example because he does it on a scale beyond anything we’ve seen before, but almost everyone does it,” Ghosh said. “That’s the problem.”
Ghosh said the Federal Election Commission has received more than 40 complaints about Trump’s misuse of campaign funds, but none of the cases have been investigated.
Trump’s legal bills are expected to continue to mount as three more criminal cases await trial. But a new wave of support from big donors and an influx of small donations after the May 30 guilty verdict helped ease his campaign’s financial drain. In the week after the trial, Trump’s team and the Republican National Committee reported that $141 million had been raised in May, on the back of millions raised since the verdict.
Experts say the new round of funding is part of a Trump campaign strategy to capitalize on his legal challenges and seek out wealthier donors.
Watch the video above to learn more about who these mega-donors are and how Trump is keeping his political operation running amid unprecedented legal obstacles.
About The Author
