The money isn’t coming into Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, as his decision to announce an early bid has bombed.
Gabriel Sherman at Vanity Fair reported:
There are several theories about why Trump’s campaign has been so underwhelming out of the gate. “Money is a real issue,” the former administration official said. Already, prominent GOP mega-donors, including billionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Schwarzman, have said they aren’t supporting Trump’s 2024 run.
As a presidential candidate, Trump isn’t allowed to tap into the $100 million war chest his various super PACs have amassed since he left the White House, meaning he either has to raise the money himself or spend his own. “A rally is expensive. They cost a half million dollars easily,” a veteran of Trump’s 2016 campaign told me. Trump’s 2024 campaign has yet to file a fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission, but two sources close to Trump told me the money spigot isn’t flowing like it used to.
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The important point is that Trump can’t use his super PAC money for his presidential campaign. There has already been chatter in Republican circles about how Trump wore out his donor with constant fundraising appeals for his super PAC. Donor fatigue is a very thing, and Trump simply asked his followers for money too much and too often.
The reason why there have been no rallies since he announced is that Trump can’t use his super PAC money to pay for the events. Now that he is an official candidate, any event that Trump holds will be considered a campaign event.
Trump appears to have been so worried about being indicted that he cut off his own money supply. Donald Trump no longer gets the free media coverage that he once did and without the cash to hold rallies, the failed former president is left with nothing to do but putter around his private club, and air his grievances on his small social media platform.
Donald Trump thought that he was outsmarting the DOJ, but all he really did was sabotage himself.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
