'Are they giving?' Trump hounding staffers to raise cash quickly as legal bills pile up

Donald Trump is pinning his hopes on a major haul at a gala fundraiser in Palm Beach on Saturday night as he falls farther behind President Joe Biden in the race for presidential election campaign cash.

While Biden is raking in big campaign bucks and landing last month with $192 million on hand, more than double what Trump can access, the former president is stuck playing catch-up during a critical period in the campaign at the same time he is funneling money to his lawyers to keep him out of jail.

With that in mind, the Washington Post is reporting that Trump is devoting the bulk of his day calling up potential donors while also putting pressure on his campaign aides to raise more money to keep his presidential hopes — and his desire to remain free — afloat.

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According to the report, the embattled former president is hounding staffers about Saturday night's turnout and pressuring them to get checks in hand as soon as possible.

Pointing out Trump is in "full sprint mode," the Post reports, "Trump is closely tracking who is attending the fundraiser Saturday, who has given the maximum and how much has been raised, according to a person who spoke to him recently. His advisers regularly brief him on the attendees. 'He is focused on this fundraiser,' one person familiar with his thinking said. 'He has a lot of friends in Palm Beach, and he’s saying, are they giving?'"

Despite Trump's people putting on a happy face about their fundraising efforts, the Post is reporting, "Trump’s campaign finance reports in recent months have shown the tremendous strain that his legal troubles are placing on his broader fundraising effort. Reports filed in January showed that two of Trump’s committees, the Save America leadership PAC and the Make America Great Again PAC, spent $55.6 million on legal bills in 2023 as Trump fights felony charges in four criminal cases."

"In February, the Save America PAC spent more than it raised — with the majority of its money going to legal costs. Before Trump joined forces with the RNC to raise money through the new joint fundraising committee, he was leaning heavily on his own small-dollar donors to help pay his legal bills through his own committees. For each dollar raised into his joint fundraising account, he would divert 90 cents to his campaign committee and 10 cents to the Save America leadership PAC," the report continued.

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