'If he wins all this stuff goes away': Trump sees White House as only shot at survival
Donald Trump doesn't have to be goaded into making fundraising calls now that his legal bills are skyrocketing.
The former president has hosted more traditional fundraising events and made donor calls, and he's quietly been raising money for the Republican National Committee's "nominee fund," which he's peeved that he can't access until he's officially the GOP nominee, reported Marc Caputo for The Bulwark.
“He’s much more engaged than I’ve ever seen him at this, and that’s because he has to be,” said one Republican familiar with the campaign’s finances. “The numbers right now aren’t good, but we should raise a billion dollars or $900 million at this pace now. We’ll have enough.”
That source was at Mar-a-Lago for a fundraiser Feb. 16, after New York Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a record $454 million penalty for fraud, and the campaign pulled in $6 million at the event.
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"[Trump] was clearly peeved," that Republican said. "He knew it was happening. The number was clearly a lot, but he was strangely in a good mood. You or I would be in therapy if something like that happened to us, but Trump compartmentalizes and the business stuff doesn’t matter as much. What matters is becoming president. He thinks he’s going to win, and he believes that if he wins, all this other stuff gets taken care of.”
Trump insists he's got enough cash and assets to pay the fines and $50 million in associated legal bills, and some Republicans are nervous about his takeover of the Republican National Committee with his handpicked leadership team, including daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair, and committee member Henry Barbour floated a draft resolution pledging that RNC money won't go to his legal bills.
“Part of the thinking is to get them on the record [over the legal bills]. It’s in the RNC’s interest,” said Barbour, a Nikki Haley supporter from Mississippi.
Barbour conceded that resolution was unlikely to pass, and RNC member John Wahl of Alabama agreed it probably wouldn't even get enough support to be formally introduced for a vote.
“[But] the few folks who aren’t with Trump are nervous," Wahl said, noting that Lara Trump has publicly stated she believes Republican voters would support paying his legal bills.
President Donald Trump’s super PACs spent $50 million in legal fees as four criminal indictments crashed down on him last year.
“It is a staggering sum,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher noted in January. “Nikki Haley raised roughly the same amount of money across all her committees in the last year.”
Haberman and Goldmacher said Trump will face an “enormous financial strain” as he heads into an election year rife with court appearances.
The cash moved through several PACs: Make America Great, Save America and MAGA Inc. among them, according to the report. A spokesperson for one of the PACs, Alex Pfeiffer, waved away the reported sum and told the Times his group raised about $120 million.
“This is old, recycled news” Pfeiffer reportedly said. “Every dollar being raised by MAGA Inc. is going directly to defeating Joe Biden in November.”