Trump Trails Biden on 2024 Fundraising as Legal Fees Mount

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s political operation spent an additional $5.6 million on legal fees in February, dampening the Republican presumptive nominee’s political fundraising, which continues to lag his Democratic rival’s cash haul.

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President Joe Biden has a wide financial advantage, having a record war chest for this point in an election year. The money Trump can tap for legal fees is set to run out in the next few months. After that, he will then have to lean on donors to give more to finance his ongoing legal challenges, including four criminal indictments.

Campaigns, parties and super political action committees filed their February reports to the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday. Here’s how they stack up:

Donald Trump

• Trump’s campaign raised $10.9 million in February, ending the month with $33.5 million in the bank.

• His allied super PAC raised $12.7 million and had $25.5 million cash on hand.

The Trump campaign had another modest haul in February even as he romped through the early primary contests. His campaign spent $7.8 million, including $1.3 million on media buys and $1.3 million on air travel.

Save America, the entity funding most of the former president’s legal bills, spent $5.6 million on lawyer costs in February. His political operation has spent $63.9 million on legal expenses since January 2023 and has about $7.8 million more he can tap, which will only last him only a few months.

Trump currently earmarks 10% of donations he receives to Save America. He can increase that threshold to pull in more money for legal fees though that leaves his campaign with increasingly less money to spend. He can continue to raise money for the political action committee directly, too.

Trump’s campaign received donations from real estate developer and conservative activist Carl Paladino, lobbyist and GOP fundraiser Brian Ballard. Aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow gave $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s allied super PAC. RAI Services Co., the tobacco company, gave $1 million.

Joe Biden

• Biden and the Democratic Party raised $53 million in February and ended the month with $155 million on hand

• Biden’s main allied super PAC, FF PAC, reports quarterly and won’t disclose figures until next month.

The president and his party amassed the most cash ever for a reelection effort at this point in the calendar, and had its biggest haul from grassroots donors to date, breaking records set in the three previous months, according to a statement by Biden’s campaign.

Biden has been able to fundraise jointly with the Democratic National Committee and state parties as an incumbent, allowing him to accept larger checks from donors. Trump who was in a contested primary until March, wasn’t able to join forces with his party until a few weeks ago.

Republican National Committee

The RNC raised $10.7 million and ended February with $11.3 million cash on hand. Big donors included PayPal co-founder Ken Howery, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Sweden and Jamie McCourt, his ambassador to France and Monaco. Small-dollar donors gave $4.1 million.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• The Kennedy campaign raised $3.2 million in February and started March with $5.1 million.

• His allied super PAC, American Values 2024, raised $4.2 million and had $18.5 million cash on hand.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who is running as an independent, has continued to find support from donors in finance, but his biggest supporter last month was Gavin De Becker, whose previous donations are the subject of a FEC complaint.

De Becker, a security consultant who’s worked for Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, donated $4 million to American Values 2024. Previously, he’d donated $10 million to the super PAC, which refunded $9.7 million to him. The DNC said the transactions should be reported as loans and loan repayments in its complaint to the FEC, filed on March 4.

Hedge fund manager Robert Bishop also donated to Kennedy’s super PAC, while venture capitalist Robert Ackerman gave to his campaign.

Club for Growth Action

The super-PAC arm of the pro-market Club for Growth raised $4.2 million and ended February with $19.9 million cash on hand. Big donors were Uline Inc. co-founder Richard Uihlein, who gave $1.5 million, and longtime GOP donor Virginia James, who gave $1 million.

American Bridge 21st Century

American Bridge, which plans to launch a $140 million campaign in the spring focusing on women and working class voters to help Biden in swing states, raised $3.6 million and has $5.9 million in the bank. It got a $1.8 million donation from Democracy PAC, a super PAC funded by hedge fund manager George Soros.

(Updates with details in the Trump, Biden sections)

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