Former President Donald Trump’s political committees raised about $24 million in the last three months, an eye-popping sum to be sure. But an analysis of his filings shows that the embattled ex-president also spent more than $37 million over the same period, coming out with a net loss of around $13 million.
In real terms, Trump’s fundraising last quarter was actually something closer to $3.6 million—that’s how much he actually raised for his two main committees, which he can use for things like political activity, events, legal fees, and enriching his businesses. But while those two committees took in about $3.6 million, they also spent roughly $15.5 million on operating costs.
Those losses didn’t stop Trump’s allies from boasting to the media that the ongoing federal investigation into his hoarding of government records was playing out as a political and financial win, claiming the legal boondoggle had only energized his MAGA base. In truth, they weren’t telling the whole story—the twice-impeached former president had been hemorrhaging cash all along, while apparently struggling to convert small-dollar donors.
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A Trump spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
This analysis is based on recent Federal Election Commission filings from Trump’s three active fundraising committees. Over the last three months, those groups spent a combined $23 million on services associated with raising money. Accounting for just those expenses, Trump walked away with a little over $1 million. But his other costs took a major bite—legal fees alone ate up $7.5 million—leaving him $13 million in the hole, all told.
Because these three committees are all connected and share the money, it can be difficult to cut to the truth. For instance, Fox News ran an article this week incorrectly claiming one of his committees raised $24.7 million this quarter, when it only pulled in about $3.3 million.
But if we want an idea of Trump’s real bottom line, we have to look at just two of the three groups.
One is the notorious “Save America” leadership PAC (Save America), and the other is Trump’s old campaign committee, now called “Make America Great Again PAC” (MAGA PAC). Those committees do the spending on political activity.
According to FEC reports, Save America and MAGA PAC raised a combined total of a little more than $3.6 million from donations last quarter—a far cry from $24 million.
That’s because the $24 million was raised by the third group, a joint fundraising entity called “Save America Joint Fundraising Committee” (SAJFC), which handles almost all of Trump’s fundraising.
The only real purpose SAJFC serves is to act as a middleman. It doesn’t engage in political activity, but instead raises money directly from small-dollar donors and splits the proceeds between the two other Trump groups. And filings show that almost every dollar of the $3.6 million that Save America and MAGA PAC raised from donations in the last three months came from that group.
But even though SAJFC raised $24 million, it cost $22 million to get there. And as The Daily Beast reported on Thursday, more than $20 million of that spending went to services to help Trump raise money—things like web and text message ads, digital consulting, direct mail, donor lists, online merchant fees, and the like.
Because of those high costs, SAJFC was only able to transfer a few million dollars to the two groups that actually fuel Trump’s political activity—paying for his rallies and other events, purchasing political ads, funding legal expenses, and giving money to MAGA allies and friendly outside groups.
Even if SAJFC had transferred every last dollar in its account to those groups, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The committee only had another $6.2 million in the bank, not nearly enough to offset the overall $13 million deficit.
Of course, Trump still sits on a huge pile of cash. Save America has about $92 million cash on hand, which Trump can use to influence allies, line his pockets, bankroll a likely 2024 presidential bid, and deter challengers within the party. That’s almost three times as much as the Republican National Committee. (Save America made one federal political contribution last month—$100,000 to Bikers for Trump.)
Still, the unusually high spending-to-raising ratio lends further credence to concerns that, as Republicans in general have been raising more money, Trump’s own efforts are growing more shaky and unsustainable. After years of barraging supporters with fundraising requests, he may actually be struggling to find donors who are willing and able to give him money.
To that point, it’s notable that most of the $1.2 million that went to MAGA PAC—Trump’s old campaign—was not raised recently.
More than $800,000 of it came from old donations that had been sitting in another inactive committee for almost two years. They date back to as early as Nov. 4, 2020—the day after the election. As of Sept. 30, Trump’s old campaign only had about $1.1 million on hand.
