Last August, while many Republican presidential hopefuls scrambled to raise money, Donald Trump focused on a different financial consideration.
In an item the former president published to his social media platform, the Republican wrote, “The Lunatic Left, working closely with Crooked Joe Biden and his corrupt DOJ, is not only focusing on Election Interference, but on getting the Trump Campaign to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, thereby having less to spend on ads….”
Much of the missive was nonsense, though the former president’s reference to spending “vast amounts” on his legal defense raised an obvious question: Just how brutal are Trump’s legal bills?
Five months later, an answer has come into focus. The New York Times reported:
Donald J. Trump piled up legal expenses in 2023 as he was indicted four times, spending approximately $50 million in donor money on legal bills and investigation-related expenses last year, according to two people briefed on the figure.
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, described the total as “a staggering sum,” which was more than fair. If the figures are accurate, we’re talking about a presidential candidate who spent nearly $1 million per week, every week for a year, on his legal expenses.
Ordinarily, when campaign contributors make donations, they assume that their money will go toward advertising, campaign staff, campaign offices, etc. When Trump’s followers send him money, however, a dramatic amount of donors’ money is redirected to the former president’s defense counsel.
The details of his political operation’s finances will come into focus in the latest Federal Election Commission filings — the deadline is roughly 11 hours away — but as the Times’ report explained, the emerging picture will only tell part of a larger story.
After Trump’s defeat in 2020, his followers sent millions to his Save America political action committee, hoping the…
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