Donald Trump owes $438 million from losing court cases, but the Republican National Committee’s new co-chair, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, has promised that “every single penny” will go to Trump. According to her, Republican voters are fine with the RNC using campaign donations to cover that enormous tab.
According to a new Civiqs poll conducted for Daily Kos, Lara Trump is right.
Fielded March 9-12, the poll finds that 63% of Republican voters say either that they want the RNC to cover Trump’s legal bills, or that they don’t care if it does. Only 26% of Republican voters oppose using the national party’s funds to cover the cost of Trump’s legal tab.
Trump’s biggest legal challenges, including his four pending criminal cases, are still ahead, but that level of Republican support has to be heartwarming. Earlier this week, Lara Trump and new RNC chair Michael Whatley staged a bloodbath at the committee, firing around 60 staffers. They also moved the party’s finance and data operations to Palm Beach, near Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters. That doesn’t necessarily make it easier to move money into Trump’s accounts, but it will be handy if he wants to come over and take a Scrooge McDuck-style swim in the incoming checks.
And he’s definitely looking for any opportunity to bring in those checks. In addition to begging his MAGA followers for “five, ten, or even 25 dollars,” Trump reportedly sought help from billionaire Elon Musk. While he was able to post a $91 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, it’s a long way from resolving all of his issues, which Bloomberg believes are putting Trump in a “cash crunch.”
So knowing that Republican voters are largely okay with the RNC paying his legal bills is sure to excite him.
However, there’s another group that should be equally excited about the way Republican voters are willing to support funneling more cash to Trump: Democrats.
Even before Trump helped install his daughter-in-law, the RNC was having its own problems with cash flow, with only $8.7 million in the bank. That’s probably not enough to pay the parking fees run up by Trump’s legal teams, much less make a serious indent in that half a billion.
If whatever cash the RNC can collect is going to Trump, then it’s not going to Republican candidates trying to gain an edge in the Senate. It’s not going to Republican members in the House, every one of whom has to defend their seat this fall. And it’s not going to races for governors, state attorneys general, state legislators, local officials, or judges.
The consequence of having an authoritarian party ruled over by a single corrupt family at the behest of a single corrupt candidate is that all the money goes to one person. Trump is a money pit that the RNC can feed but never satisfy. Everyone else will go hungry.
Republicans say they are okay with that.
Democrats should be too.
The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell joins Kerry to discuss the State of the Union and what President Biden needs to do to soundly defeat Donald Trump in November.
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