Trump breaks promise in fundraising solicitations saying 90% of fundraising going directly to campaign as FEC disclosure says nearly 75 cents of every $1 raised going to legal fees
Seriously past time for Republican presidential primary voters to ignore the fake polls and begin supporting other candidates
Exclusive to McHenry County Blog from John Lopez
UPDATE 7/31/23 at 3:30PM CDT
Sunday night on Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont, I had a terrific 8-minute plus discussion of The Washington Post findings of the $40.2 million Trump has spent on legal fees since the start of 2023 through June 30.
The cued video with my question with host DuMont and Trump supporting attorney Doug Ibendahl can be viewed here.
Additionally, while I disputed the majority of the polling released to date in my exchange with DuMont last night, the New York Times/Siena poll was released this morning:
Unlike the fake polls being pushed ad nauseum by Trump supporters including his social media influencer team, the NYT/Siena poll is different, and in spite of showing ex-President Trump with a lead of 37 points, this nationwide poll with a sample size of over 900 likely Republican primary voters, blows away the false narratives Team Trump been sending out in recent weeks including:
- Vivek Ramaswamy surpassing Ron DeSantis into 2nd place
- Senator Tim Scott (R, SC) closing in on DeSantis
- DeSantis fading into single digits
On those narratives, the NYT/Siena poll clearly and firmly sets up the Republican presidential nomination is a two-man race between Trump and DeSantis.
Additionally, in my exchange with DuMont Sunday night, I pointed out the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter Electoral College analysis released last week with ratings of all components of the Electoral College which revealed only four (4) battleground states are in play in 2024 as “toss-up” ratings if a Biden-Trump II rematch set for the fall of 2024:
- Arizona
- Georgia
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
As DuMont said at the tail-end of my appearance last night, Trump won those 4 states in 2016, and lost those same 4 states in 2020, and he doesn’t believe Trump can win the General Election next year.
Republican presidential primary voters will have to decide if they want to take a chance on Trump to win those states next year, or to go with the only viable alternative to Trump, as proven by NYT/Siena poll – DeSantis.
First votes that count will be cast in Iowa on January 15.
============ END OF UPDATE ===========
Late Saturday afternoon, ex-President Donald Trump, frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary field, story started hitting explaining legal expenses proving to be Trump’s highest expenditure of his 2024 campaign, currently, nearly 75% burned.
As the story was breaking late Saturday afternoon, Trump was at a campaign rally in Erie, PA, of about 5,000 people, barely filling half of the arena venue.
To the tune of $40 million through June 30, according to FEC campaign disclosure reports analytics assembled by The Washington Post in an article published late Saturday afternoon reveals:
Preferring to trust analytics of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data with a firm other than The Washington Post, Rob Pyers, research director of the California Target Book gave his analysis of the numbers in a multi-tweet Twitter thread, transcribed below for ease of reading:
“Trump world attempting to get out ahead of the story that Trump’s Save America leadership PAC burned $40.2 million on his legal fees in the first six months of the year.
Rob Pyers, California Target Book, 7/29/23 Twitter Thread
“For those keeping track, that’s $40.2 million spent on legal fees out of the $53.8 million Trump’s committees raised in the first half of the year, or roughly three out of every four dollars raised under a variety of false pretenses.
“It’s also clear that the promises in Trump’s fundraising solicitations that 90% was going to his campaign and only 10% to the leadership PAC paying his legal fees were false.
“The FEC report detailing the legal spending from Trump’s Save America leadership PAC is due Monday.
“After that, because of the FEC’s off-year filing schedule, legal expenses from July 1st on won’t be disclosed until the year-end report on January 31st, 2 weeks post-Iowa caucus.
“And now a possible explanation for why Trump’s MAGA, Inc SuperPAC, after spending $20M+ on anti-DeSantis ads week after week, has been dark since mid-June.
“Trump’s Save America PAC gave $60M to the MAGA, Inc. SuperPAC last fall. It spent $15M across 5 senate races and ended 2022 w/$54.1M on hand.
“It has since burned $23M, mostly on anti-DeSantis ads. Assuming $0 operating expenditures, that leaves ~$30M for Trump to try to recoup.
“Still unclear if Melania Trump’s stylist, who received over $150,000 last year from Trump’s leadership PAC for what the FEC was told was ‘strategy consulting’, was affected by the Trump cash crunch in the first half of the year.
“The dizzying legal fees can be partially explained by the steep up-front costs caused by high turnover, a natural by-product of attorneys quitting because their advice lost out to non-lawyer Tom Fitton’s expert counsel.”
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From the desk of John Lopez: So let me get this straight, Trump’s campaign promised its donors, both the rich and the not-so-rich, that 90% of all campaign contributions would go to fund the campaign, and only 10% would go to administrative costs, including legal fees. The truth, as the analytics prove, is only 25% of contributions go to the campaign.
There are over a dozen other Republican presidential candidates, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the best known and within striking distance of Trump with 5 1/2 months before the first real votes are cast in the Iowa precinct caucuses on January 15.
I do not believe the bulk of the polling showing Trump with leads from 30 points higher, given most of those polls have notoriously small sample sizes and result of push polls. Trump’s campaign and their constant attacks on DeSantis prove those polls are bogus, as a real frontrunner with insurmountable leads in polling would be wanting to look “presidential” in preparation for the fall 2024 campaign, with their teams/volunteers told to do the same.
Trump’s real lead over his Republican rivals is likely 20 to 25 percentage points over DeSantis, and there are a few polls showing the lead much smaller.
Don’t know if even average “MAGA Republicans” will continue to support Trump when the truth gets out about Trump, a billionaire, using the bulk of his presidential campaign fundraising to pay his legal fees.
While the use of campaign funds for legal fees is legal, is it right?
It’s overdue for mainstream Republican primary voters to abandon Trump and look at someone else. Here in Illinois, Republican State Central Committeewoman Jeanne Ives openly said she’s backing Governor DeSantis in the primary. National Committeeman Richard Porter has long been a DeSantis supporter, and last week, wrote an op-ed in Real Clear Politics making his case for DeSantis over Trump.
Other Republican leaders over the past 25 years are backing other candidates, most notably Ron Gidwitz supports North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, along with many of the campaign team of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in last year’s Republican gubernatorial primary campaign.
Most of the self-described “grassroots” in Illinois appear to be predominately Trump backers at this time, but there are exceptions, most notably, Shannon Adcock of Naperville, co-founder of Awake Illinois and its companion group Awake Americans, is a DeSantis backer.
Stories like this, and Trump donors who believed his campaign about the 90% of contributions going to the campaign and not to pay legal fees, could begin to change people’s minds who support Trump by name ID in polls. With the first debate scheduled for next month (and the possibility Trump may skip the debate), there’s plenty of time for voters to change their minds, or make up their minds, whom to vote for in the primaries next year.
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No one noticed.