Donald Trump’s political operation had a startling weakness as the general election kicked off this year: He had been spending money almost as quickly as he was raising it, leaving him at a significant cash disadvantage against President Joe Biden.
Trump’s cash woes have been well-documented. But a new POLITICO analysis shows just how he got there over 15 months from the early stages of his campaign in 2023 through March of this year, when he effectively dispatched his GOP challengers.
Most of his money wasn’t spent on campaigning.
Trump’s complicated web of political committees spent roughly $217 million through March, with that spending split roughly equally between fundraising expenses, legal bills and actual campaigning. But the same network of groups brought in a bit shy of $220 million in new contributions. Trump is hardly broke — he had $45 million in his campaign account at the end of March — but the high expense rate significantly limited his ability to build up cash.
That is among the findings of the detailed POLITICO analysis of Trump’s and Biden’s sprawling money machines, which are more complex than ever this cycle. The examination of combined campaign finance filings through the end of March — the most recent filings available for presidential campaigns and other linked committees — from every group involved in their political operations, tracing the flow of funds from the early stages of the campaign to the kickoff of the general election.
At that stage, Biden had nearly double the cash on hand of Trump in their respective campaign accounts. But the president’s advantage was actually even bigger: More money was still in the Biden pipeline through joint fundraising committees — groups that raise funds for multiple campaigns or committees — than in Trump’s.
Trump has made fairly significant changes to his campaign fundraising operation since, launching two new joint fundraising committees. One of those is now the primary digital fundraising vehicle for his campaign. The Republican National Committee also uses that group, meaning Trump gets a substantial cut from the national party’s online donations. His campaign has also sought to monetize other Republican groups that use his images in fundraising appeals. And his ongoing criminal trial in New York City could be a significant revenue stream of its own, given how his team has successfully fundraised off past legal woes.
The various groups — both new and old — file financial reports on different schedules, and only line up a few times each year. While Trump and Biden’s campaigns will file new campaign finance reports on Monday, the next comprehensive portrait of all their groups won’t be possible until late July. That will reveal whether Trump’s trial and his new committees have helped him make up ground, or whether Biden has continued to grow his advantage.
POLITICO’s analysis covers only through the end of March, and does not include unofficial April numbers circulated by campaigns. Trump’s money has streamed through half a dozen different groups:
There is also a super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., that has direct financial links to Trump’s operation, refunding tens of millions of dollars to Save America for contributions that Save America made in 2022 before Trump was a candidate. Those funds have helped Trump’s political operation stay afloat over the past year. But unlike the other committees, MAGA Inc. is not controlled by Trump, and it is not subject to contribution limits.
Across Trump’s political operation, spending was nearly evenly divided in three major categories: fundraising, legal bills and campaigning, with just a few million dollars going to other expenses.
Of the three major categories, fundraising was the most costly, with $70 million spent, representing just shy of one-third of the operation’s overall spending.
Joint fundraising committees are only allowed to spend on raising more dollars, so all their expenses are classified as fundraising. Those expenditures were primarily made through Trump Save America. As the primary fundraising vehicle until recently, the committee spent heavily on the tools that have powered Trump’s digital fundraising operation, including nearly $20 million on digital consulting and online advertising, $15.1 million on direct mail and postage, $12.1 million on merchandise and merchant fees, $7.3 million in fundraising fees paid to digital firms and $4.5 million on text messaging.
While a robust fundraising operation supports strong campaigning, Trump Save America spent more than Biden’s joint fundraising committees — while raising less.
The second-largest Trump expense category is legal fees. POLITICO’s analysis counts campaign legal spending — a normal part of running for president — under campaign expenses; the legal spending category is made up only of the expenses paid by the other groups.
Legal costs have drawn significant attention as the former president seeks reelection while facing four sets of criminal charges — including an ongoing trial in New York — and has also faced a barrage of civil suits over the past few years, including a fraud case in New York that resulted in hundreds of millions in fines.
Since the start of 2023, legal fees through the Save America leadership PAC and MAGA PAC have accounted for $69.3 million in spending. That has largely been enabled by the refunds from MAGA Inc., with a few million also being peeled off the donations raised through the Trump Save America joint fundraising committee.
Campaigning accounts for the third-largest expense category from Trump’s political operation, with $65.5 million in spending since the start of 2023. That amount is roughly 31 percent of the overall spending by Trump’s political operation, underscoring how non-campaign expenses have soaked up cash.
By contrast, campaign spending accounts for a bit more than half of what has been spent by Biden’s entire political operation so far, with the remainder going toward fundraising.
Biden’s campaign network is simpler than Trump’s. It includes:
(Biden, like Trump, has super PACs supporting him, but his committees have no direct financial ties to them.)
Those three groups had collectively raised $365 million through the end of March and spent $138 million, with an additional $79 million transferred to the DNC and state parties.
The Democratic president’s political operation was also still holding onto a lot of cash in its pipeline: more than $40 million in Biden Victory Fund and $19 million in Biden Action Fund. While not all of that money will go to Biden’s campaign, a large chunk of it will. And the share allocated for the national and state parties will ultimately still boost him as the candidate at the top of the ticket.
Trump had far less money waiting to be transferred. His operation reported having $13.6 million in Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee and $12.7 million in Trump 47 Committee. It’s money that will eventually boost Trump’s candidacy, but it is not as big a bump as Biden gets.
Put simply: Biden raised more money, spent less of it on fundraising and none on legal costs, saved more, and has more waiting to hit his campaign bank account than Trump did.
But Trump’s operation is changing, driven in part by his takeover of the RNC after he officially secured the GOP nomination.
Since early April, both Trump and the RNC have been sending digital fundraising solicitations primarily for Trump National Committee, the new joint fundraising committee — with nearly a dozen emails per day across the two groups some days. Under the committee’s allocation formula, 90 percent of its proceeds go to Trump. That’s significant because that means the Trump campaign now gets a direct cut of the money raised by the RNC.
Trump has also sought a 5 percent cut from Republican candidates and groups that use his name or likeness in fundraising, creating additional revenue streams for his campaign.
Fundraising will also pick up as the campaign heats up. The former president’s campaign told donors earlier this month that his operation had raised $76 million in April, up from $65.6 million in March. That total includes the RNC and joint fundraising committees. It won’t be possible until late July to know how much of that increase came from the new funding streams specifically.
Also unclear is what the changes mean for several of his affiliated groups — and the future funding of his legal bills, paid by Save America.
Trump National Committee does not send money to Save America, meaning most donations raised now no longer break off a portion for legal bills. And the leadership PAC could receive only $2.75 million more from MAGA Inc. after March. Save America may still be owed some money from Trump Save America, the joint fundraising committee, although that would likely amount to only a few million dollars. Once those refunds dry up, and all the remaining money is sent, it’s unclear whether Save America will have the ability to keep spending on legal bills.
The group is also affiliated with Trump 47 Committee, according to FEC records, but it can only receive a maximum of $5,000 per donor through that group.
Taylor Miller Thomas and Jessie Blaeser contributed to this report.
POLITICO analyzed campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission dating back to the beginning of 2023 for Trump, and to Biden’s April 2023 campaign launch.
While both candidates have a range of committees working to elect them, only those they control were included in the analysis. Party committees, including the DNC and RNC, were not included, except to show how they receive some money from joint fundraising committees linked to candidates’ campaigns. Super PACs are similarly excluded except for MAGA Inc., which was included in graphics to show how it refunded Save America, Trump’s leadership PAC. The super PAC’s fundraising and spending were not included in calculating Trump’s toplines.
Total fundraising for each candidate was calculated as the sum of all direct contributions to their affiliated committees, with refunded contributions subtracted. Transfers between committees were excluded because they don’t represent new incoming donations.
Spending toplines were calculated as the sum of committees’ operating expenditures and other disbursements, subtracting any offsets to operating expenditures. Fundraising expenses included all operating expenditures from joint fundraising committees and any campaign spending listed as fundraising in FEC reports. Legal expenses were defined as any non-campaign spending described in FEC reports as for legal purposes. Campaigning expenses cover all other costs from the campaign committees.
