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CNN
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Former President Donald Trump is gearing up for an expensive general election campaign with President Joe Biden, and faces mounting legal costs of his own, but his campaign says it will We are actively working to reduce this.
Senior adviser Susie Wiles secretly joked that campaign staffers called her a “miser,” but she’s not entirely wrong.
After a recent event, one of President Trump’s staff members was discussing the Uber they took home, but it soon became clear to the group that it was Uber X, the cheapest option available. I made it. “Susie would kill me if she thought I spent more money than I should have,” the person said, adding that Wiles was so meticulous about items that lower-level staff’s choice of cars, or limits, Alluded to noticing a possible difference in cost.
Meanwhile, senior adviser Chris LaCivita has privately complained that the former president’s signature large rallies are too expensive. he He encouraged his team to work together to hold events in smaller, lower-cost venues, according to conversations with several Trump advisers. He also publicly stated that the former president had stopped hosting many rallies due to the exorbitant costs.
“Organizations that have concerns, or at least have that level of concern at the forefront, are going to get better bids,” Rachivita told CNN, adding that the campaign aims to reduce costs across the board. talked about the attempt. “If you’re not spending the majority of your money appealing to voters and promoting candidates, you’re not running a good campaign.”
Advisers say one of the driving forces behind the Trump campaign’s focus on cutting costs is that it fears a repeat of the financial woes of the 2020 general election, when the former president burned through hundreds of millions of dollars. Weeks before the November 2020 election, Trump’s campaign would face an alarming cash crunch months later.
In addition to curbing spending on gatherings and transportation, the campaign is also severely restricting funds spent on hotels, meals and other day-to-day expenses that typically accompany large-scale political campaigns, advisers said. One senior adviser pointed out that even the furniture in President Trump’s state headquarters across the country was carefully selected to avoid extra costs.
“Anyone who has worked on a campaign knows that in headquarters the furniture needs to be functional, and that’s it. Trump campaign office decor is mismatched but functional,” senior Trump said. the adviser told CNN. “We don’t have a mahogany desk. Even if we did, it would be falling apart because it’s 200 years old.”
A senior adviser to President Trump said the 2020 campaign was a “bust.”
“In our position, we look at everything through that prism,” the adviser said. “Campaign leadership is keen to make sure that doesn’t happen in this campaign, because it is the greatest sin that can be committed in politics.”
President Trump’s 2024 campaign will require a more frugal approach, which was the pride and sometimes frustration of the former president’s team, but may now be necessary.
President Trump has received more than $500 million in legal fines in recent weeks. In January, the former president was ordered to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll in a civil defamation lawsuit. Shortly after, a New York judge ordered the former president to pay a $355 million judgment following a civil fraud trial, but the amount rose to $454 million with interest.
And those numbers don’t even include mounting legal costs as he faces 91 charges in four criminal indictments. One of the trials, his New York criminal case over hush money payments, is scheduled to begin in Manhattan on March 25th.
President Trump himself has begun paying some of the legal costs personally, two senior Trump advisers told CNN. This is in stark contrast to someone who has a long history of loathing paying legal fees and putting pressure on lawyers. A senior adviser told CNN that President Trump has spent at least six figures of his own money to cover his legal costs.
President Trump’s leadership PAC paid more than $2.9 million to law firms in January alone and racked up an additional $1.9 million in unpaid legal fees, according to recent filings with federal regulators.
The leadership fund, Save America PAC, has become the former president and some of his allies’ primary vehicle for underwriting astronomical legal bills, with plans to raise $50 million in 2023, nearly 85% of total spending. spending more than $1. The PAC is currently short on funds, with just over $6 million available at the end of January.
Save America’s financial woes were caused by funds raised by President Trump on the back of false claims of election fraud in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, but the organization has withdrawn funds donated by President Trump to his super PAC Make America. It became clear last year when I started doing it. Great Again was founded to support President Trump’s current bid for the White House.
So far, Save America has recovered more than $47 million from super PACs, and 10% of every dollar raised by President Trump’s political activities is funneled to Save America by his campaign.
With overwhelming victories in early states, Trump appears to be on track to win the Republican presidential nomination months before the party’s nominating convention in July. A recent memo circulated by President Trump’s senior advisers predicted it would be several weeks before the former president could secure enough delegates to declare himself a leading candidate in the coming weeks. The tipping point will require national Republican infrastructure and associated funding, he said. — to launch a general election campaign.
But Trump’s political operations have fallen far behind Biden’s campaign in the money game, with cash reserves of about $30 million since the start of February, according to recent filings. Biden’s comparable account is about $56 million.
The Democratic National Committee similarly outperformed the Republican National Committee, with $24.1 million in coffers at the end of January, compared to the RNC’s $8.7 million.
Conversations with Mr. Trump’s advisers and aides indicate that Mr. Trump’s financial situation is so dire that the Trump campaign is seeking new ways to raise money and to continue funding both Mr. Trump’s campaign and legal battles. They say they are being forced to be creative in finding different ways to conserve resources. To the former president.
The campaign plans to continue relying on Save America for the majority of its legal costs, but privately acknowledges that the financial strain it faces is a result of legal costs that continue to pile up, the people said. said.
A portion of the initial legal fees paid by Save America PAC will also be received by the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, which was established in 2023 to cover legal costs and attorney fees for some of President Trump’s co-defendants and allies. ing. He is being indicted on charges related to the former president. Trump’s advisers say the fund, which reportedly raised $1.5 million by the end of last year, will continue to be used.
But his advisers say asking the RNC to step up its costs is not on the table, at least for now.
“We have no expectation that the RNC will help us, and we have no plans to ask them to divert funds to legal costs,” a senior Trump adviser told CNN.
This stance came as a surprise to some Trump supporters and former RNC members who had expected it. The committee decided to return to the process in which the committee helps pay for the former president’s legal costs when he becomes the party’s nominee. This practice began during his time in office and continued until he announced his candidacy in 2024. This is especially surprising, they argue, given that President Trump-approved RNC management nominees are expected to be successful in their efforts to take over the committee’s leadership.
Last month, President Trump formally endorsed Michael Whatley, leader of the North Carolina Party, as the new chair of the RNC and recommended his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair.
Lacivita has also been named the RNC’s chief operating officer, but is expected to continue in his current role as the former president’s co-campaign manager.
Trump’s advisers have argued that the decision not to rely on the RNC to cover the former president’s legal costs has two implications, the most pressing being the committee’s current financial woes.
“How will they help with his legal costs? For what money?” a Trump adviser told CNN. The RNC entered 2024 with just $8 million in the bank, the lowest number in a decade. These fundraising struggles have prompted Trump to seek new leadership for the committee.
President Trump’s advisers have also argued that they would rather use the RNC as a core promoter of the general election campaign and preserve its donations to strengthen both President Trump and the broader Republican base.
But given the resource strain that Trump’s political campaign currently faces due to the exorbitant amount of Trump’s legal fees and fines, their aversion to using the RNC’s resources may be short-lived. unknown.
One RNC member recently drafted a resolution that would prohibit the RNC from paying Trump’s legal costs.The committee’s 168 members should take up the resolution, but some said they thought it was unlikely to pass..
Meanwhile, current and former members of the RNC argue that Trump’s financial problems would improve if he became the Republican nominee and they could start using his name and likeness again to boost fundraising. .
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