President Donald Trump has raised more than $150 million since the presidential election after encouraging supporters to donate to his campaign’s legal fight against the election’s results.
Trump’s campaign began asking for donations for its Election Defense Fund in early November, but nearly 75% of the money raised will go toward a political action committee connected to Trump, which will help fund the president’s future political efforts, according to the New York Times.
“The average donor who gives in response to Trump’s appeal for funds to ‘stop the fraud’ likely doesn’t realize that their money is actually retiring Trump’s debt or funding his leadership PAC,” said Brendan Fischer, the director of the federal regulatory work at the Campaign Legal Center.
“Small donors who give to Trump thinking they are financing an ‘official election defense fund’ are in fact helping pay down the Trump campaign’s debt or funding his post-presidential political operation,” Fischer said.
Regardless of the donation’s amount, nearly 25% of each donation is allocated to the Republican National Committee as well, the Times reported.
However, the vast majority of Republicans donating to Trump’s latest fund probably do not care where the money goes.
A majority of Republican voters said they would support a Trump 2024 presidential bid: One survey from Seven Letter Insight found that 66% of Republicans would support Trump’s 2024 campaign, and a Morning Consult survey found that 54% of Republicans would vote for Trump in a 2024 primary.
A recent report confirmed Trump is strongly considering running again if Biden enters the White House, and he could announce his intentions to run again as soon as Inauguration Day.
And, during a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month, Trump reportedly told Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompe, and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien that he would run again if his legal challenges fell flat.
“If you do that—and I think I speak for everybody in the room—we’re with you 100 percent,” O’Brien told Trump.
