Trump biographer raises questions about his wealth as campaign donors foot the bill for his many lawyers

Former President Donald Trumpā€™s PACs have spent about $50 million in donor money on his legal bills last year, sources told The New York Times.

The ā€œstaggering sumā€ spent by Trump on his legal fees and investigation-related expenses is about the same amount his lone remaining GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley raised across all her committees last year, the Timesā€™ Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher write. Federal Election Commission filings this week are expected to detail the full extent of Trumpā€™s ā€œenormous financial strain,ā€ they added.

Trump, who has a penchant for relying on campaign donations to pay his lawyers if he actually pays them at all, has used his Save America PAC to cover his legal costs. When the PAC ran low on cash last year, Trump asked for an unusual refund of $60 million that had been transferred to the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. PAC. Trump has also been directing 10% of donations raised through Save America to a PAC that primarily pays his lawyers, according to the Times.

  • samus12345@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is a case of the inmates running the asylum. The Republicans in power who know heā€™s an idiot are stuck with him because he has such a large base of hateful assholes (whose votes they have been courting for decades) who think heā€™s the second coming. Their votes are the only chance they have at winning, and they have only themselves to blame.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Thatā€™s clear, but I donā€™t understand why there is a need to deviate from business as usual all of a sudden. It canā€™t be in the interests of the rich and powerful to draw attention to how very wrong things have been going in the so called US democracy for decades. I think thatā€™s extremely dangerous - and if thereā€™s one thing big business wants to avoid at all costs, thatā€™s probably this.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Itā€™s the natural progression of big business cozying up to conservatism since itā€™s profitable to do so. As soon as Republicans starting allying with far-right groups, they were all in bed with fascists. Instead of risk losing profits short-term, theyā€™ll pretend that everything is fine until itā€™s not possible to any more.

        • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yes, thatā€™s probably how it went. Fascism is, of course, a perspective that promises profit and power for such people - it worked excellently for the profiteers in Nazi Germany, nowadays also in Russia (in a slightly different disguise) and elsewhere. The only question that remains is whether the Americans will resist. Unfortunately, it doesnā€™t really look that way to me at the moment. So perhaps the very unscrupulous have bet on the right horse after all. Weā€™ll have to wait and see.