Disclosements released on Monday show that the Republican Party has more than $100 million in cash on hand thanks to Donald Trump’s late 2021 fundraising slowdown, which could help the party win control of the House and Senate in the fall elections.
According to FEC reports, Trump’s main fundraising committee, Save America, raised $23 million between July and December of last year, down from $62 million in the first half of 2021.
Republicans continue to support Trump despite his false claims that the election was rigged despite him losing the 2020 presidential election to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Trump has been out of office for about a year.
Republicans were surprised by the slowdown in his fundraising.
“The further Trump gets from the White House, the more difficult it seems for him to raise money,” said Dan Eberhart, the CEO of oilfield services company Canary, LLC, a prominent Republican donor.
Campaign finance laws prevent Trump from using Save America funds to fund his own re-election bid in 2024, despite Trump’s strong hints that he might.
It is important to note, however, that Trump is spending a lot of money on political rallies where he claims to be supporting Republican candidates, but in reality, his speeches are the main attraction.
Common Cause campaign finance expert Paul Ryan says that “Trump very well may find a way to spend the money that he raised in 2021 for a 2024 campaign and get away with it.”
Save America paid Event Strategies, Inc. more than $1.4 million in the second half of 2021, according to financial disclosures made by Save America.
Many Republican candidates, including those challenging Republicans who voted with Democrats to impeach Trump on the charge that he incited a deadly Capitol assault on January 6, 2021, have received Trump’s endorsement.
According to figures released by Trump’s office, Save America, which ended 2021 with $105 million in cash, has donated just $1.35 million to “like-minded causes and endorsed candidates.”
The Conservative Partnership Institute, which counts Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as a senior partner, received a $1 million donation from the group in July.
The Make America Great Again PAC, Trump’s former campaign committee, had $6.7 million in cash at the end of the year, according to a separate financial disclosure. Much of the second half of the year was spent on legal expenses.
The disclosures show that Save America and the former campaign spent a total of $290,000 on Trump properties for rent, catering, meetings, and lodging. Rental and meeting expenses at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, totaled more than $52,000 for Make America Great Again.
It was revealed that Trump’s campaign will “crash through the midterms and continue all the way through 2024” in a statement about the fundraising haul released by Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich.
Democrats, who control Congress by a razor-thin margin, are bracing for a difficult election season as Vice President Biden’s popularity has plummeted among voters weary of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy.