Trump biographer raises questions about his wealth as campaign donors foot the bill for his many lawyers
Former President Donald Trump’s PACs have spent about $50 million in donor money on his legal bills last year, sources told The New York Times.
The “staggering sum” 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 Times’ Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher write. Federal Election Commission filings this week are expected to detail the full extent of Trump’s “enormous financial strain,” 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.
I realize most that, but why risk the comfortable status quo? Perhaps it really is megalomania in the form of wanting to return to monarchy-like conditions in which the law not only pretends to apply to everyone, but is actually a law “by the grace of God”. I can well imagine this, given everything that is apparently negotiable in America.
That’s the question we’re all asking ourselves. Aren’t the hoards big enough?