It looks increasingly likely that the Republican National Committee's (RNC) coffers will be used as a legal fund for former President Donald Trump heading into November.
While the party may be able to help Trump defend himself in his four upcoming criminal trials, Trump raiding the RNC's bank account could complicate the party's efforts to regain control of the US Senate and maintain its majority in the House of Representatives in the 2024 election cycle.
According to CNBC, there is a growing consensus among GOP leaders that the party will ultimately acquiesce to calls to pay Trump's mounting legal bills, which include not just criminal defenses in three separate jurisdictions, but multiple civil judgments that are already well past the half-billion-dollar mark.
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"I support the RNC paying President Trump’s legal bills," RNC committeeman Solomon Yue told the outlet, adding that he believes "more than a majority" of other state committee members share his viewpoint.
If the party is to use donor money to pay the former president's lawyers, it may require a resolution to pass on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin later this summer. That may pass, given that a separate resolution RNC committeeman Henry Barbour of Mississippi (nephew of former governor and RNC chair Haley Barbour) introduced in February to ban the party from paying Trump's legal costs went down in flames earlier this week.
"The resolution is dead," Barbour told Reuters' Alexandra Ulmer.
But should such a resolution pass, it would put the RNC in an even more financially precarious position, with the party already strapped for cash heading into what's expected to be the most expensive presidential election in US history. CNBC reported that the RNC had just $8.7 million in cash on hand at the end of February, which is a paltry sum compared to the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) more than $24 million in cash on hand as of January 31. The DNC has raised in excess of $137 million in the 2023-2024 cycle, compared to the RNC's $98.7 million, according to Ballotpedia.
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Aside from their efforts to reclaim the White House in 2024, the GOP is also hoping to flip a net total of two US Senate seats in order to retake the upper chamber of Congress, and prevent Democrats from flipping two US House seats to avoid losing the speaker's gavel. All of that takes money, and Republicans are behind Democrats in the money race for both the presidential election and the various high-profile House and Senate elections this year.
Ballotpedia's tally of fundraising by the Democratic and Republican-aligned campaign organizations shows that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) are roughly neck-and-neck in fundraising totals, with each organization raising $84 million and $88 million, respectively. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is far outpacing the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in amounts raised this cycle, with the DCCC approximately $30 million ahead of its GOP counterpart.
Trump's legal bills would serve as a huge distraction from high-stakes US Senate elections in red states where incumbent Democrats are running for another term, like Montana and Ohio. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Montana) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) would each have to hold onto their seats if Republicans flip the seat held by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), which is expected to be an easy gain for the GOP. Likewise, more unpopular Republicans like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) are hoping for significant financial support from their party as they fight to keep their own Senate seats.
When looping in the $55 million Trump has already paid in legal bills in 2023, along with his $454 million civil fraud judgment and the combined $88.3 million in judgments for writer E. Jean Carroll — who won her sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits against the former president — Trump is already on the hook for nearly $600 million. The New York Times reported that he recently met with billionaire X, Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk as he hunts for well-heeled backers.
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