CMIIW, but didn’t TFG have a PAC that was his to do with as he pleased, as long as he didn’t announce his candidacy? It was supposedly over 200 million. Of all the times it might be advantageous to peel off a few bills and get a decent law firm, he cheapens out with ambulence chasers. And not paying his Truth Central bills? Without Twitter, that’s his outlet, right? If that money is for real, this critical juncture in his life would be the time to use it, I would think.
Trump’s largest SuperPAC, the Save America PAC, has about $100 million cash-on-hand as of the July reporting period. The August 8 FBI raid has almost certainly added millions of dollars to this total. He has a couple of other SuperPACs as well as various PACs and fundraising committees steered by allies.
The question is what he intends to do with all that money. Under FEC regulations, he has pretty broad leeway to use that money to fund his travel and expenses (including legal expenses), donate to other candidates and PACs, give to “charities” run by allies, etc. What he can’t do is use any money raised to date for a Presidential campaign – once he declares, he will need to create a Presidential campaign committee that will solicit and expend all donations for his Presidential campaign.
Could he use his current PAC money for a Presidential campaign anyway? Maybe. The FEC is by statute divided evenly between Democratic and Republican commissioners. Any enforcement action needs a majority of commissioners to agree, and they often deadlock on partisan lines. He could just spend those dollars in ways that benefit his campaign and dare the FEC to do anything about it.
For sure. If he gets any pushback, trump just spins it into 'wahhh the Radical Liberal Deep State is after me again! I mean, they’re after you and I’m in their way! No fair!!" And it’ll just get him more PAC money donations.
Two things about Trump seem to be consistent:
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It’s all about the grift.
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Everything Trump touches turns to shit.
He’ll need money to cover his impending legal expenses. That’s not going away.
If Trump spends the money on his presidential campaign, exactly how would anybody get it back? Threaten him with jail? They wouldn’t even be in the top ten.
in terms of using it to hire lawyers, I don’t think that lack of money is what is keeping him from getting good representation. Its that no lawyers are willing to take him on as a client.
As far as Truth Social’s financial woes, Trump probably got all the grift he could out of it in the first few days of the public offering when DWAC stock shot up from $10 a share to $94 (its currently $24). He’s used to starting businesses that end up failing, the key is to make sure that someone else is holding the bag by the time that happens. Spending some of his own money to try to keep it afloat would be counter to that.