Almost all of former President Donald Trump’s time in politics has been spent facing one investigation or legal threat after another. These seemingly endless run-ins with the law aren’t cheap; it costs money to retain lawyers, even when they aren’t of the highest quality. Trump also hates to pay for almost anything out of his own pocket, leading him to turn instead to his campaign’s donors to help foot the bill.
The result is that over the course of 2023, the Trump campaign and affiliated political action committees spent around $50 million on the legal defense of the former president and others in his orbit, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. That is a truly wild amount of spending for a campaign that wasn’t doing much campaigning in the off year. Now that he’s facing both what is likely to be the most expensive presidential campaign season in history and an unprecedented string of criminal trials, the question is whether Trump will be able to cover it all without negatively affecting one or the other.
In his attempt to avoid dipping into his own funds, Trump is drawing primarily on money from his Save America PAC to pay his ever-mounting legal fees. He’s also spending cash from the Make America Great Again PAC, the current incarnation of his 2020 re-election committee. Those accounts were once flush with cash: In the aftermath of the 2020 election, he raised more than $200 million by selling his supporters on the lie that he was going to expose mass fraud. But since then, Trump has been indicted in four criminal cases and faced several major civil suits, leaving those accounts struggling to stay in the black as the cash on hand has dwindled.
The costs Trump faces are only going to go up as the year goes on, along with his ability to afford time off the campaign trail. His New York state civil trials have wrapped, with the E. Jean Carroll defamation verdict costing him $83 million and another judge poised to hand down millions of dollars in damages against his company. But the criminal cases still loom, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money trial due to start in March. Trump’s federal election interference case, which was scheduled to start in March, as well, is likely to be delayed as the courts continue to deal with his farkakteh immunity claim — but those delay tactics still cost money as they continue up to the Supreme Court.
While it’s true that the Trump campaign is apparently more functional than it was the last two times around, the amount of funding available will play a major part in determining whether that lasts. At the same time, though, there’s not a guarantee that the steady outflow from Trump’s campaign to his lawyers’ pockets will be a drag on him come November. His unique position could be enough to blunt the effect that such a huge line item might have on other campaigns.
Unless former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley stays in the race longer than expected, the primary season will be over almost before it had begun. That will allow the campaign to access new donors and tap funds that could be used only in the general election. Trump is also a former incumbent, one whose policies and positions are widely known among his supporters. He has near-universal name recognition and can spend most of his time attacking President Joe Biden rather than trying to introduce himself or his plans. There’s no indication, either, that his supporters are set to slow their financial support for him, even if 10 cents of every dollar they send him are being funneled to his legal defense.
We also may need to shift our perception of those legal fees’ being a detraction from the campaign rather than something that complements it. Yes, it is usually an uncontroversial idea that a criminal trial (let alone multiple trials) hurts a candidate’s popularity. Consider, though, that a huge part of the campaign’s message centers on grievance: Trump himself is being persecuted, therefore any one of his followers could face the same treatment. What better demonstration of that than his supposed continued harassment by the “weaponized” legal system and law enforcement?
In political campaigning, there are two ways to spread a candidate’s message: paid media and earned media. The former comprises creating and running ads on TV and radio, in print and on the internet — most campaigns’ largest expenditure. The latter is every other time candidates appear on TV or in news articles, whether it’s because clips from their stump speeches are aired or, as in this case, they’re appearing in court.
Trump’s lawyers have become steadily less likely to focus on developing an airtight legal case than reflecting and weaving in their client’s preferred narrative. His rant in the closing arguments at the civil trial in the case against his businesses was filled with campaign rhetoric despite a warning from the judge to stick to the matter at hand. His appearances outside the courts are live performances of his posts on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns and uses to post whatever nonsense is in his brain.
Trump’s team is already poised to view his coming criminal trials as an extension of the campaign trail and another chance to sow misinformation. Given that frame of reference, the money being diverted away from ads will be recouped as the spotlight stays focused on him. If anything, Trump will be more prone than usual to remain on message, as horrifying a message as that is, while he’s throwing unfounded accusations of corruption at Biden.
To be clear: I’m not saying that it’s good that Trump will be spending vast sums of money from his donors to try to keep himself out of jail. Nor am I saying it’s going to be the kind of thing that wins over that small sliver of undecideds that both camps will be fighting over. But if there’s anyone who’s going to make blowing absurd amounts of cash on lawyers instead of ads come out in the wash, it’s Trump.
