Trump raised millions but spent none of it on audits and GOP candidates

Source: Politico | August 3, 2021 | Meridith McGraw

The one outside group the former president supported during the first half of 2021 was his own.

Six months since leaving office, former President Donald Trump is sitting on a $102 million war chest.

But having whipped his supporters into a frenzy with pledges to overturn the election and promises to support Republican candidates in the midterms, he is not spending his campaign money on either.

A review of election filings from Make America Great Again PAC, Save America PAC, and the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee show that not a single penny was transferred or contributed from those Trump-affiliated entities to GOP candidates or committees involved in the midterm elections. Nor did Trump’s various groups write a check to support the audit in Arizona that he has repeatedly praised in statements and suggested would lead to the overthrowing of the 2020 election results.

Trump’s groups brought in more than $80 million during the first half of 2021, a large chunk of which was transferred in from Trump-affiliated accounts. He used some of his funds on things like salaries for aides and political advisers, as well as events, travel expenses and fundraising outreach to supporters. He also spent more than $8 million in legal fees paid to various firms and attorneys to advance his attempts to change the results of the 2020 election and defend himself in a second impeachment trial. The one expenditure Trump did make to an outside group was to one in his own orbit: a $1 million contribution to America First Policy Institute, the think tank a handful of his former aides launched when he lost the White House.

Trump’s spending decisions suggests that he knows the Arizona audit is just for show and that he is more keen on saving up money for his own purposes than he is on supporting others’, at least for now. The spending patterns also stand in contrast to the tone and tenor of the fundraising appeals and public utterances he has been making since leaving office.

Key to Trump’s money-raising success has been continued baseless claims the election was stolen, his plea for support for election audits and reviews in states like Arizona, and his promise that he would continue to move the MAGA movement forward, even while out of the White House. While teasing a run in 2024, he has also repeatedly vowed to first help Republicans win back control of Congress in the midterms by offering his endorsement and even holding rallies in support of candidates.

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