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.
That’s clear, but I don’t understand why there is a need to deviate from business as usual all of a sudden. It can’t be in the interests of the rich and powerful to draw attention to how very wrong things have been going in the so called US democracy for decades. I think that’s extremely dangerous - and if there’s one thing big business wants to avoid at all costs, that’s probably this.
It’s the natural progression of big business cozying up to conservatism since it’s profitable to do so. As soon as Republicans starting allying with far-right groups, they were all in bed with fascists. Instead of risk losing profits short-term, they’ll pretend that everything is fine until it’s not possible to any more.
Yes, that’s probably how it went. Fascism is, of course, a perspective that promises profit and power for such people - it worked excellently for the profiteers in Nazi Germany, nowadays also in Russia (in a slightly different disguise) and elsewhere. The only question that remains is whether the Americans will resist. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really look that way to me at the moment. So perhaps the very unscrupulous have bet on the right horse after all. We’ll have to wait and see.