Donald Trump’s political operation is reeling after spending around $60 million on legal fees pertaining to the four criminal indictments and various ongoing civil lawsuits against him.

Disclosures indicate that Trump’s campaign and the various political action committees supporting it blew through tens of millions of dollars in 2023, leaving him cash-strapped heading into 2024.

Save America PAC, Trump’s primary PAC heading into his likely rematch with President Joe Biden, once had over $100 million in the bank. Now, it has just a little over $5 million left after spending over $25 million on legal bills in the second half of last year alone.

  • Nobody@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    And Trump’s donations have sucked all the air out of the room for all GOP candidates, state parties, etc. They’re throwing the 2024 war chest down the endless hole of Trump’s legal problems. Isn’t he supposed to be a billionaire?

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Looking forward to seeing exactly what that real estate is actually worth when he’s forced to divest and pay the judgements against him.

        • ares35@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          probably half underwater, loaded down with debt; and the rest, likely falling apart in need of significant renovations.

          who am i kidding? it’s likely all loaded down with debt.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            10 months ago

            Does Deutchbank debt count as actual debt? I always figured with all the money laundering, that if he had to sell any of his actual properties (which are mostly shitty golf courses at this point), that the Russian moon would be charging him by the kneecap.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          10 months ago

          It’s the worst time to sell as well, with high interest rates and nobody wanting to be associated with anything Trump.

        • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          How much is office space? That’s not worth a lot anymore. If he’s lucky he owns a lot to apartments

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        He’s a billion dollars in debt.

        Pinhead fucknuts think that means he’s a billionaire. He’s got a billion dollars less than nothing.

        Relevant: he’s a convicted fraud.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          10 months ago

          Funny how you can live like a king if you’re $1 billion in debt, but if you just have no money, you’re just going to be homeless.

          • tmyakal@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            I have a problem if I owe the bank a thousand dollars. The bank has a problem if I owe them a million dollars.

            • crazyCat@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              It needs to be a lot more than ‘just’ a million to make a bank really sweat and act abnormal; at that level you’re just a criminal they pursue.

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        10 months ago

        A Newsweek article says he has $2.6B networth with $426M in cash and liquid assets. However, that very article is about the trial where he inflated his assets, so the basis for that may be completely wrong.

        That trial could put him under penalty of $370M. The Carroll lawsuit is $83.3M. Even if we take his liquid assets above as a given, he’d be wiped out, and his real estate is worth a fraction of what he claims.

        Trump needs to be in jail, but he’d also be Al Capone running his empire from a cell if he had to. Kick him in the money. That hurts him personally.

    • Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, as literally every developer in NY said for years. Even before his presidential run:

      “How do you make $1M in real estate?”

      A: Give Trump $100M.

    • Aidinthel@reddthat.com
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      10 months ago

      Trump’s supposed wealth was always mostly marketing. Being a billionaire was literally his brand image.

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      10 months ago

      It’s a lot like how Elron Musk theoretically is worth billions, but still feels the need to run funny schemes on doge coin. He can’t sell substantial amounts and get cash without reducing the Tesla share price and thus his overall net worth even more than what he took out.

      • Corigan@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Not wholy true, he might not be able to sell his stocks but he can take out loans against them for money.

        It’s the Buy, Borrow, Die Strategy, and how they avoid taxes as well. He’s not poor he doesn’t need to grift and he has all the liquid money he could ever need for a thousand life times…

        • squiblet@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Elton still does feel the need to do shit like pump Dogecoin though. Maybe it’s just for the thrill of scamming people.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    He’s not strapped for cash. He sold U.S. secrets to the Saudis for $2 Billion. Jared Kushner is holding his money for him. He won’t actually be broke until we go after that pot of stolen gold.

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    10 months ago

    Maybe that’s because his PAC is blowing millions getting its ass kicked in Ukraine?

  • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Holy fuck he’s paying his own legal bills from campaign money? I guess it’s not illegal.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      He had the RNC paying them for a while. Supposedly what he’s doing now is okay because his website says that’s where the money is going.

      • And009@lemmynsfw.com
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        10 months ago

        If he’s not hiding anything and the donators are fine with it… Doesn’t seem illegal

        • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          The problem is how transparent they are being. If you get an email saying “TRUMP NEEDS YOUR HELP TAKING ON THE WOKE MOB” and there’s a big donate button that brings you to donate to “SAVE AMERICA PAC” and it just so happens that they’re spending 90% of their money on his legal defense, how well informed were you?

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            10 months ago

            When he gets elected and either pardons himself or never leaves the White House until his death, none of this matters to him a single bit.

            • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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              10 months ago

              Spending $50 million on legal fees instead of building out campaign infrastructure and paying for ads reduces the odds he gets elected though.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Way to many things about campaigning and financing are not illegal, and that needs to get fixed.

      • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Oh, yeah, that’d be great, but corporations are people. Except in terms of wage theft, unsafe working conditions, or dangerous products. There’s nobody to put in jail for those, nothing we can do, sorry!

  • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    No worries, he’ll release some more NFT trading cards for $2-300 a pop and he’ll sell a shit ton of them because his followers are fucking dumbshits. Bitch and moan about the economy but then buy his crap.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    He’s gonna need to sell a whole lot more digital trading cards to refill the coffers. I wonder how many times he can do that scam and still have it work.

    • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Forever because his supporters are mindless drones that do as he demands. Much like those mega churches both are cults.

      • GluWu@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I wonder if churches are seeing a loss in their profitsdonations and might turn against their orange God.

        • squiblet@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          State Republican organizations have recently been having financial problems in part because people donate directly to Trump vs them.

    • ares35@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      “vlad, ol buddy, o pal-o-mine… i need some money.”

      “me too,” replies the russian. “nyet!”

  • slingstone@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    How is it legal for him to use funds raised for a political campaign on his personal legal fees? Isn’t this a kind of fraud or something?

    • citrusface@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Legally - Trump can’t use the super PAC funds at all. The super PAC decides what it does with the money. The PAC chose to pay the legal fees… However - we all know behind closed doors there is plenty of communication about what that money is used for…

      At least that is my understanding of super pacs

      Edit: it’s not a super PAC sorry, just a PAC. I’m not a Pac-Man so I got confused. Wakka wakka.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Hurr hurr hurr hurr…

    As with any war, strategy takes a back seat to logistics, and logistics take a back seat to financing.

    Can’t win a war with out money for lunchables for the crayon eaters (love you). Go after the sources of funding and the game gets real, real quick.

    A butchered quote from my favorite book on strategy:

    The worst is to go after their fortresess, and the next worse to go after their soldiers in the field.

    Beyond that it is better to go after their ability to organize, their logistics. Better even, to go after their alliances and finances.

    Best of all is to win in the field of their ideas themselves.

    People pay Trump because of a parasocial relationship where they believe they are having some effect. If they see that money as being lit on fire for Trumps failed court proceedings, this is an oppurtunity to drive a wedge between Trump and what he needs so much to keep his, likely absurd, burn rate going. Go after his relationships.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Best of all is to win in the field of their ideas themselves.

      “A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place.” - Gul Dukat

  • aew360@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    They blew the entire war chest on legal fees and he still can’t afford to pay his lawyers.

    It would have been a lot cheaper to just, you know, not incite an insurrection and defraud investors and sexually abuse women.

  • OpenStars@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    He literally could not afford to not run for President, no matter what effects that has upon the nation (especially if he wins).

    • Arcane_Trixster@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      It’s funny, if he never decided to run for president, he could have kept scamming people and assaulting women until he died and no one would have really cared.

      Now he’s in a position where he has to run again, because it’s the only thing that can save him from the consequences of the first time he ran.

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        10 months ago

        This is why I think the “rich white people never face consequences” crowd have it wrong. They tend not to face consequences because they have lawyers to find loopholes in the first place, and then they make sure to keep it all out of the public eye, and then if they do get noticed, they listen to those lawyers and don’t do things to perjure themselves.

        Trump failed at every one of those.

      • OpenStars@startrek.website
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        10 months ago

        I know what you mean - in many ways he’s a victim himself, even though he’s also a cause, both of his own suffering, as well as ours. But it’s the system that is screwed up, not (just) him.

  • Lucz1848
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    10 months ago

    He should just squeeze his base for more cash. They don’t mind.

  • profdc9@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I guess the lawyers will vote for him. He will keep them busy for quite a while to come.