WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 got off to a modest fundraising start, with his campaign ending the year with about US$7 million on hand while his Save America fund had about US$18 million, according to financial disclosures released on Tuesday (Jan 31).
After launching his third consecutive run for the White House on Nov 15, a week after a weaker-than-expected Republican performance in midterm congressional elections, the former United States president did little campaigning, not hitting the trail until last Saturday.
Tuesday’s filings with the Federal Election Commission suggest that Trump’s fundraising was also sluggish, leaving him with a far smaller war chest than the more than US$100 million Save America had on hand through early 2022.
Trump remained a prodigious fundraiser after leaving office in January 2021, holding regular rallies in which he repeated his false claims that his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud.
But the Save America group that served as his main fundraising arm was registered to fund other campaigns, not Trump’s own. That poses legal problems if Trump seeks to use Save America funds on his own campaign.
Last year, Save America transferred about US$60 million to a pro-Trump super PAC group which is expected to support his presidential run. The Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan watchdog group, has asked election regulators to probe Save America’s money transfers.
Save America’s financial disclosure on Tuesday showed that the group spent more than US$3 million on lawyer fees in the final weeks of 2022.
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