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Donald Trump faces a Senate trial next week following his impeachment by the House during his final week as president. In the midst of a looming impeachment Senate trial, Trump’s new PAC was revealed to have raked in millions in donations.
Financial filings made by Trump’s Save America PAC over the weekend revealed that in the last weeks of 2020 when Trump was in the midst of touting his election fraud claims, the committee brought in over $30 million in donations. This year, the PAC has $31.1 million in cash on hand, further indicating the strong support Trump still has with his base amongst the Republicans. Trump set up the PAC shortly after his election loss to Joe Biden last year, where he refused to concede and instead contested the election results in swing states that went in favor of Biden.
Despite being unsuccessful in his 61 lawsuits in the states, Trump continued to seek out donations from his supporters under the guise that this was for his election defense. Although his PAC received large amounts of donations, the filings also showed that the PAC spent more on reaching out to Trump’s base than in the lawsuits his legal team has filed. The first and biggest cut from the donations went to the PAC itself, where Trump could use the donations to back other candidates as well as fund the travel and pay the staff.
As Trump faces a trial at the upper chamber, he will also be faced with legal charges. Despite the PAC spending little in the last weeks of 2020, the campaign committee incurred millions in expenses, with $4.4 million in legal fees to over two dozen law firms.
The former president recently announced the two lawyers who would be representing him in his impeachment defense shortly after his previous legal team all resigned. However, with the Senate’s deadline of issuing a preliminary defense on Tuesday, Trump’s new lawyers only have hours to draft the defense. Trump was impeached by the House on a single article of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 riots at the Capitol. All the Democratic representatives including 10 Republicans voted to impeach the now-former president. Trump’s Senate trial is scheduled to take place on February 9.
