I'm Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for 'Opinion,'
and I’m a co–host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.”
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So we have a Republican Party right now headed by Donald Trump,
which you might think would be great news for the party because he’s got so many passionate fans.
But it has its downsides as well, and we are seeing problems emerge with the party’s financing, fundraising,
and a lot of this has to do with Trump and his MAGA team.
We’re not talking about someone who cares a lot about the Republican brand or ideology.
It’s all about what the party can do with Trump, and that infects every aspect of it,
from what candidates are preferenced to how much money comes in and how it’s distributed.
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If you start at the top, Trump, obviously, has his financial challenges.
One of the issues is that donors are a little skittish about him.
They’re not all that keen on maybe financing his shenanigans going forward.
So he has fallen behind in the fundraising.
His coffers are a lot lighter than President Biden’s at this point.
Compounding the problem is that Trump is facing a lot of legal troubles, which have been quite expensive.
So getting multiply indicted is not cheap.
I think “The Times” news site has crunched the numbers and put it at about $100 million so far.
And let’s be clear, Trump is not paying this out of his own pocket.