It is no secret that Donald Trump has been eating up campaign funds to pay his legal bills.
With Donald Trump proposing all of his people now be in charge of the RNC, including his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair, there were obvious concerns that RNC funding would be diverted to bite off some of those fees.
Talking Points…
- Donald Trump's legal fees
- Vow to RNC
- Analysis
Donald Trump's campaign and SuperPACs have been using a significant amount of campaign funds raised to pay legal fees for Donald Trump and his children's legal fees for all things related to his campaign and the previous administration. When Trump was president, the RNC also paid some of those fees.
Since this all started, Trump has spent close to $100 million in campaign funds on legal bills, and that total will more than likely double once these federal indictment cases go to trial, especially if Trump appeals the rulings and takes the cases to the Supreme Court.
While Trump has been spending his money on legal fees, the Democratic National Party (DNC) and Joe Biden's campaign and PACs have been stashing money. Biden has access to more than $120 million, about four to five times what Trump and the RNC have available right now.
Most conservatives were very unhappy with how Ronna McDaniel has run the RNC since taking over as Chair. Trump endorsed McDaniel for the chair after the 2016 election, when she was the Michigan Republican Party chair. Since then, however, she has bombed in terms of producing winning elections.
Trump recently met with McDaniel, reportedly telling her to step down, and she vowed to do just that after Super Tuesday. Trump now wants to put all his people in positions of power in the RNC, which includes his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. Lara has vowed to spend every penny of RNC money on getting Donald Trump elected.
When she made the announcement, there was obvious concern that it would include helping to offset the costs of Trump's legal bills. If that were the case, it would leave little money left not only for Trump's campaign but also for the campaigns of other Republicans the RNC should be supporting during the election.
So, the Trump campaign was asked directly if it would be accepting funds from the RNC to help pay legal bills. Thankfully, the campaign stated it would not, responding:
"Hard no. Absolutely not. Asked and answered."
That answer was good news for donors because Donald Trump's cash-burn rate is at 81% right now, which means only $0.19 of every dollar raised is actually being spent on the campaign itself. The DNC is very much aware of this and is now using this to attack Trump. For instance, DNC Spokesperson Alex Floyd stated:
"The RNC is already cash-strapped and chaotic, and trading one extreme out-of-touch Trump loyalist for another is not going to fix their problem. Donald Trump is going to be their nominee, and they clearly can't afford it financially or electorally."
The Biden campaign responded similarly, stressing that Biden's' campaign money would reach voters while Trump was using his campaign funds for his personal legal troubles. Now, there is a workaround for this, which could see the RNC transfer funds to the Trump campaign or PAC and then use it for his legal bills, but people will be watching this like a hawk to see if that happens. Either way, promising not to use RNC funds was a good move, the right move, but that does not change the fact that Biden is going into this battle with a lot more bullets than Trump.
