Or, in this case, two related things that seem to indicate the near-inevitability of an event, but could easily mean just the opposite - especially considering the upside-down-ed-ness of these Nazi MAGA Daddy State assholes.
(WaPo 1) Trump committee nearly broke and other key takeaways from campaign filings
(WaPo 2) Opinion
Admit it, GOP. Trump’s legal woes make him an unviable candidate.
Reports filed show that some of Trump’s fundraising committees are spending about as much as they are taking in amid legal expenses
- plus -
Admit it, GOP. Trump’s legal woes make him an unviable candidate.
Normal people might think those two things have to mean Trump will keep sliding, and be out of the race pretty soon.
And we can hope for that to become more than a possibility. The Country Club Republicans can't be happy with the prospect of getting their asses kicked continually for the next several cycles as they refuse to stop playing their shitty little thread-the-needle game.
ie: "No, we love plutocracy - plutocracy is what we're all about. We simply haven't found the right Plutocrat-in-Chief yet. But don't let the rubes in on that, OK?"
The problem there is that the rubes hate the Country Clubbers so much, they've convinced themselves that Trump is actually on their side - like some weird fantasy version of the FDR-type traitor-to-his-class that they can call their own.
Knowing what we know about their tendency to embrace and internalize every shitty aspect anybody has ever ascribed to their character, we have to assume they'll do whatever it takes to be good little Cult45 devotees.
Trump committee nearly broke and other key takeaways from campaign filings
Reports filed show that some of Trump’s fundraising committees are spending about as much as they are taking in amid legal expenses
Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee raised $53.9 million during the first half of this year for his presidential campaign — an enviable haul that speaks to the enthusiasm of his donors and dwarfs the sums raised by his GOP rivals.
But Trump’s political committees are burning through cash as he grapples with his mounting legal bills, according to campaign disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission Monday night. Here are a few takeaways from the new disclosures filed with the FEC:
Trump’s leadership PAC drains its cash
Trump remains in a commanding position, with a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday showing the former president leading the field with the backing of 54 percent of likely Republican voters. But reports filed on Monday show that some of his committees are spending about as much money as they are taking in. Though his joint fundraising committee raised $53.9 million over the first six months of the year, it spent more than $52 million over the same period, the reports show.
Trump’s Save America leadership PAC, which had more than $100 million at the beginning of last year, now has about $3.6 million in cash on hand after it became the vehicle used to pay millions of dollars in legal bills for the former president, his aides and his associates. As Trump fights federal and state investigations, his advisers have told The Washington Post that the PAC has been handling the legal bills for almost anyone drawn into the investigations if they ask Trump and his advisers for help.
Trump’s team is moving money to ease their financial strain
Trump’s legal entanglements are putting a considerable strain on his war chest, which has been bolstered by scores of small-dollar donors across the country — many of whom share his view that he is being unfairly persecuted by his political opponents. A portion of the money raised by the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising committee goes to the Save America leadership PAC. Earlier this year, Trump’s advisers upped the percentage of each contribution that is directed to the leadership PAC giving them more leverage to pay bills.
The reports filed on Monday night show Trump officials moving money among the different fundraising entities in his orbit to ease that financial strain. The Save America leadership PAC recently asked for a refund on a large contribution the group had previously made to another PAC supporting Trump. That development was first reported by the New York Times.
Monday night’s filings show that Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., reported that it had raised more than $13 million over the first six months of this year and had about $30 million in cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.
But the group issued a $12.2 million refund to the Save America leadership PAC, which was reflected on the mid-year report.
DeSantis super PAC leads outside groups in cash on hand
The super PACs supporting the 2024 GOP presidential candidates were required to file their mid-year reports to the FEC by midnight on Monday — offering a more in-depth look at the top financial backers of the White House hopefuls and a few hints about which groups may be well funded enough to help their candidates go the distance in the battle for the nomination.
The super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Never Back Down, boasted nearly $97 million in cash on hand at the end of June to support its expansive field and advertising program as DeSantis tries to reboot his struggling campaign. The outside group has taken on many of the duties that would normally be shouldered by the campaign. Much of the $130 million that the group raised from the beginning of the year came from an $82.5 million transfer from the governor’s former Florida political operation that allowed it to build a team of more than 121 people and a contract workforce of about 240 canvassers who work out of 11 offices across the country.
A super PAC supporting Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina reported raising $19.3 million with about $15 million in cash on hand.
The sums raised by the super PACs supporting lower-polling candidates like former vice president Mike Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie were far lower, reflecting the difficulty they may face in the months ahead. The group backing Pence, Committed to America PAC, raised about $2.7 million and has about $1.8 million in cash on hand. The Tell It Like it Is super PAC supporting Christie raised more than $5.8 million and had about $5.5 million in cash on hand at the end of the period.
‘Strategy consulting’ fees for Melania Trump’s former stylist
Though Trump’s growing legal jeopardy has contributed to a strain on cash for the Save America PAC that has been handling many of his legal bills, that committee still found the funds to pay Melania Trump’s former stylist. The committee reported payments of $108,000 to designer Herve Pierre Braillard for “strategy consulting” during the first six months of this year.
Opinion
Admit it, GOP. Trump’s legal woes make him an unviable candidate.
The revelation that Donald Trump’s political action committee spent more than $40 million on legal fees in the first half of 2023 does more than cast doubt on the former president’s ability to run a competitive primary campaign. It provides yet another reason why Republican voters should reject his candidacy if he does not drop out first.
Running for president requires more than charisma and a few rallies. It requires time and money — and lots of it. Candidates must constantly be on the road stumping for votes. They also need support from the modern apparatus that places digital and television ads and identifies persuadable voters that can cast ballots for them.
This is especially true when running against an incumbent who can count on a united party for support. President Biden, along with the national Democratic Party and its state counterparts, will raise billions of dollars to crush whoever rises as his opponent. In 2020, Biden’s campaign and affiliated outside groups spent $1.6 billion while the Democratic National Committee and state and local parties spent another $1 billion. A cash-strapped candidate would not stand a chance against this onslaught.
Then there’s the time factor. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that prosecutors are filing bogus charges to wound Trump politically. He might be able to beat all of those raps, either at trial or on appeal. But he would still have to manage his defense in at least two, and perhaps as many as four, major criminal cases. He has prodigious energy, especially for a 77-year-old man. But even he can’t be in five places at the same time.
Trump can theoretically solve his cash problem. He is reportedly considering a legal defense fund that would finance his team of lawyers. If he can raise money for that without cannibalizing his campaign fundraising, he might still be able to raise enough to be competitive. But that’s a big if.
Nothing can solve his time problem. He will have to attend a series of pretrial hearings over the next few months, and that’s the least of his concerns. A criminal defendant has to manage his defense team on a regular basis as it searches for evidence to win an acquittal. Consider Edward Gurney, the Florida senator who resigned in 1974 rather than run for reelection while simultaneously fighting a single criminal indictment. It’s unreasonable to think Trump will risk his own conviction to campaign.
This will strike many, if not most, Republicans as unfair. Whatever one thinks of Trump, it is clear he has suffered more harassment and vitriol from political opponents than just about any recent major figure. Democrats and their allies have been relentlessly hounding him since he became the GOP nominee in 2016. He certainly exacerbated his situation with his often over-the-top, pugnacious ripostes, but he has had a political bull’s eye on his back for years.
But fair doesn’t count in politics. Facts do, and it is a fact that Trump is already hamstrung by his legal charges, which are only going to get worse.
Trump insists he won’t drop out, but that doesn’t mean he’s locked in. As the financial and legal pressure ratchets upward, even a man of his colossal ego and willpower might eventually decide to save his own skin rather than press his luck.
If he doesn’t, Republican primary voters will have to decide whether they want to risk nominating a man who can’t campaign for himself. Trump acolytes might point to Biden’s campaign in 2020, much of which was conducted from his basement, as proof that someone can win without actively hustling for votes (although that would force them to acknowledge that Biden did in fact win). But that was during the pandemic, when all candidates — including Trump — were limited by covid-19 restrictions.
Biden might be old, but he’s certainly capable of making a few campaign appearances each week. Imagine what independent voters will think when they see that alongside coverage of Trump sitting in a courtroom for days at a time.
MAGA die-hards should be rooting for Trump to drop out sooner rather than later. If so, establishment-leaning Republicans such as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin might reconsider their decisions not to enter the race. If they do join the field, they would splinter the establishment even further, giving Trump the chance to endorse a clear MAGA alternative. That person would likely vault to the front of the pack overnight and inherit Trump’s base.
Trump’s famous catchphrase on his show “The Apprentice” was “You’re fired.” In politics, though, the voters are the boss. If Trump won’t quit on his own, Republican voters should show him the door.
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