Biden’s financial advantage grows, Trump’s legal bills mount, and further insights from the most recent filings

TFD – Dive into the fierce competition of campaign fundraising between Trump and Biden, shaping the 2024 election landscape.

New filings reveal that although donations to Donald Trump’s campaign increased in February, they were not able to keep up with the rapid pace of fundraising set by Joe Biden. Biden’s political operation increased his already significant financial lead over his Republican opponent as the campaign headed into March and the general election showdown.

The financial records for February, which were submitted on Wednesday night, further highlight the high cost of Trump’s legal issues: the sum of his legal fees alone was greater than the funds received by his leadership PAC in the previous month.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is accruing large expenses as a result of an allied super PAC’s significant expenditures to support him in breaking through to voters and gaining access to the ballot in more states. Kennedy Jr.’s independent White House run is coming under increased scrutiny and criticism from Democrats.

Here are some key takeaways from new campaign filings for the month of February:

Biden applies more pressure.

The latest reports, which only include a subset of the groups linked to each presidential candidate, maintain Biden’s lead in early fundraising.

The president’s main campaign account had $71 million in available funds at the end of February, which is more than double the $33.5 million that Trump’s campaign had on hand. The difference between Biden’s campaign’s around $56 million in accessible funds and Trump’s approximately $30.5 million was greater at the end of January.

Additionally, according to the documents, the Democratic National Committee had more than twice as much cash on hand at the end of February as the Republican counterpart. This further strengthens the Democratic Party’s financial advantage over Trump’s political operation, which he is now trying to establish with the national GOP as the party’s front-runner.

Although totals made public by the campaigns of the two presidential contenders show the difference between them at the end of February, several organizations connected to the contenders will not reveal their balance sheets to federal regulators until next month.

According to a Trump campaign official who spoke with CNN, the campaign and joint fundraising committee raked in $20.3 million in total revenue in February and had $41.9 million in cash on hand as of this month.

These sums are significantly less than the $53 million that Democrats and Biden had previously declared they would raise in February, as well as the enormous $155 million that the president’s team claimed to have accumulated with its linked organizations.

Given the tight finances for his campaign, Trump has adopted a more active outreach strategy with supporters, hosting meetings at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. According to an invitation obtained by CNN, the former president will be the star of a high-end fundraiser in Palm Beach next month. Among the incentives for top supporters are dinner at his table.

Trump’s direction PAC keeps accruing legal fees

Wednesday’s filings also underscore the financial strain of Trump’s continued legal woes.

In February, the Save America leadership PAC—which Trump has utilized to partially finance his and his friends’ legal expenses—spent about $5.6 million on legal expenditures.

These costs outweighed Save America’s total revenue, the majority of which came from a $5 million reimbursement the PAC obtained from MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports Trump. All told, Save America has taken more than $52 million from the super PAC, taking funds meant to bolster Trump’s presidential campaign instead of paying his mounting legal fees.

Save America is expected to quickly use up all $60 million in reimbursements that it had previously asked MAGA Inc. for.

In addition to juggling 88 criminal accusations across four jurisdictions, Trump is attempting to obtain a half-billion dollar bail in order to challenge his civil fraud verdict in New York.

A recent joint fundraising agreement between the national and state Republican parties and Trump’s campaign will donate a portion of the funds raised to Save America. This could help replenish the leadership PAC’s declining funds.

A hotelier gives the Trump super PAC $5 million.

The Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. raised $12.7 million in February thanks to a $5 million donation from Robert Bigelow, a hotelier and space entrepreneur located in Nevada.

Bigelow is one of several affluent Republican donors scheduled to attend a high-end fundraiser for Trump and the Republican Party next month. Bigelow previously backed the campaign of former Trump competitor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Last month, billionaire James Liautaud and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler were among the other donations to Trump’s super PAC.

Super PAC with Kennedy support increases spending

According to recent reports, a super PAC affiliated with Kennedy increased its expenditures in February, dedicating funds to ballot-access and advertising campaigns.

The leading super PAC backing Kennedy’s campaign, American Values 2024, announced that it had spent close to $8.8 million in February, a sharp rise over the $1.4 million it had spent the previous month. The largest outlay of funds in February was nearly $6 million paid to CBS for a controversial and well-known Super Bowl advertisement that was a reuse of a commercial from the candidate’s late uncle’s 1960 presidential campaign.

Additionally, the group disclosed that it has spent almost $950,000 on ballot access initiatives as Kennedy looks to secure a spot on fall presidential candidate lists.

According to American Values 2024, they raised $4.2 million last month, of which $4 million came from their supporter and megadonor Gavin de Becker.

Executive of a private security firm, De Becker, gave $10 million to the super PAC earlier and received a $9.65 million refund. This is an odd arrangement that representatives of the super PAC have previously referred to as “bridge funding.”

In response to a CNN query on Wednesday on de Becker’s $4 million donation in February, Super PAC representatives did not immediately react. His company was one of Kennedy’s key suppliers as well.

The DNC filed a lawsuit against the super PAC earlier this month, claiming that the organization had neglected to appropriately disclose de Becker’s involvement in loans and loan repayments. In February, American Values 2024 did not report returning any further funds.

Kennedy’s main campaign committee, meanwhile, spent about $2.9 million and raised $3.2 million in the previous month. It had approximately $5.1 million in cash on hand as of the beginning of March, but it owed de Becker’s firm over $1.3 million for travel expenses and security services.