What could possibly go wrong with this arrangement? From The New York Times:
The invitation shows that the first $6,600 donated will go to Mr. Trump’s campaign. The next $5,000 will go to his Save America PAC, which paid more than $50 million in legal and investigation-related bills for Mr. Trump in 2023. The $5,000 amount is the maximum that federal rules say can be contributed to Save America by an individual. After that, the R.N.C. gets the next $413,000, followed by dozens of state parties.
In practice, what that means is that even modestly large contributors—anything above $6,600—will fund the account that Mr. Trump has used to defray legal costs. And the fund-raising agreement came as Save America, which has averaged roughly $5 million a month in legal payments for Mr. Trump and witnesses in his cases, is on course to run low on funds as the spring ends.
Given their respective financial situations, the former president*’s campaign and the Republican National Committee look like two guys on a park bench, fighting over an apple. But as a demonstration of how thoroughly the party has capitulated to its swamp monster, it’s hard to beat the fact that the priority in its fundraising is to keep the party’s nominee out of jail, and hardly anyone mentions that this whole situation is flatly bizarre. Of course, this is all made possible because we are in the brave new world of campaign finance that arose when Citizens United legalized influence peddling.
The invitation to the April 6 dinner, which The New York Times previously reported was expected to raise $25 million, listed a number of familiar names as co-chairs. Those people included Robert Bigelow, a former top supporter of Ron DeSantis who gave Mr. Trump’s super PAC $5 million in February; Kelly Loeffler, the former senator from Georgia; Linda McMahon, a former Trump cabinet official and major Trump donor; and Rebekah Mercer, who had been a major backer of Mr. Trump in 2o16. The nature of such a dinner for megadonors is that most funds will still go to the party. But for a smaller event with, for instance, a $25,000 price to attend, a far larger share under the agreement would go to Mr. Trump’s PAC.
A $25,000-a-plate dinner is now a “smaller event.” And for what?
What is unusual in Mr. Trump’s case is that the nominee has a PAC included in the agreement that is being used to fund legal fees. Save America ended February with $4 million in the bank and roughly $500,000 in debts. It spent $7.2 million last month, with nearly $5.6 million tagged as legal expenses and $400,000 transferred to another account that has also paid legal bills.
These people all deserve to be fleeced.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
