The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s political money was already splitting in two by June 24, 2023. One stream was supposed to support a 2024 run: rallies, staff, ads and the usual machinery of a presidential campaign. The other was going to lawyers.

Federal Election Commission records show Trump’s Save America political action committee had become the main vehicle for that legal spending. By the end of June 2023, the committee had already poured millions into attorney fees and related costs. Later FEC-based reporting found Save America had paid nearly $37 million to more than 60 law firms and individual attorneys since January 2022, with more than $20 million in legal-related costs in the first half of 2023 alone.

That matters because it is not the same thing as saying the campaign committee itself was paying every bill. The strongest paper trail points to Save America and other Trump-linked political committees absorbing the legal costs, while the 2024 campaign continued raising money for campaign work. The practical result was still the same: donor cash that could have gone toward organizing and persuasion was instead being burned on defense.

The pattern was already visible in the filings. Trump’s political operation kept raising money around his legal problems, and those donations kept finding their way to the lawyers around him. By June 30, 2023, the legal tab had become a major line item in the Trump political universe, even before the 2024 race was fully underway.