Trump’s Save America PAC blew through more cash than it took in last month on legal fees
Former President Donald Trump’s leadership PAC shelled out more donor cash than it raised last month for expenses related to some of his legal cases, records show.
The Save America leadership political action committee spent over $7.2 million during February, but only took in about $5 million, according to its filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Of its total expenses, roughly $5.6 million went toward “legal consulting,” per its FEC filing. That brings its total outlays on legal expenses since last year to over $50 million.
The funds went to firms working on Trump’s hush-money indictment in Manhattan, the classified documents case, his 2020 election subversion case, and his civil fraud case in New York, according to records.
Most of the money the PAC took in month came not from donors but from a $5 million “refund” payment from another PAC supporting the former president, Make America Great Again Inc. PAC.
Save America previously requested a refund on the roughly $60 million it funneled to MAGA Inc. So far, it appears that Save America has clawed back $52 million from MAGA Inc., which promotes Trump’s re-election efforts. MAGA Inc. raised $12.7 million in February.
At the end of last month, Save America had roughly $4 million cash on hand and MAGA Inc. had $25.5 million cash on hand, but less than $8 million outstanding to Save America, according to FEC records.
In addition to its typical “legal consulting” fees, Save America racked up roughly $530,000 in debts last month for the firm of attorney Alina Habba, who repped Trump in the defamation lawsuit filed against him by writer E. Jean Carrroll and in the suit brought against him over falsifying assets by New York AG Letitia James.
Two other notable expenses involve a roughly $5,600 payroll payment to Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet who is a co-defendant in the classified document case, and just over $18,000 that went to former first lady Melania Trump’s fashion designer Herve Pierre Braillard.
Altogether, Trump, 77, is facing a total of 88 criminal counts spanning four indictments. The 45th president has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all of those charges.
On Monday, he told a New York appellate court that he can’t get a bond to help him foot the bill for the $450 million he owes on the civil fraud case so that he can appeal it.
During the month of February, Trump’s 2024 operations hauled in over $20.3 million between his campaign and joint fundraising operation.
Together, those groups have $41.9 million cash on hand.
That pales in comparison to the monster $53 million that President Biden’s 2024 operations combined with the Democrat National Committee raised in February. Biden, 81, and the Democrats reported having $155 million cash on hand.
Trump has been aggressively working the fundraising circuit over recent weeks, seeking to bolster his war chest. He also pushed for the recent leadership shakeup at the Republican National Committee, which had been mired by historically anemic fundraising.
Both Trump and Biden have won sufficient delegates to become their respective party’s nominee for president. The Post contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
