Trump raised a lot of money in early 2021, but didn’t spend much Reuters

By Jason Lange

Washington (Reuters)-A fundraising organization run by former President Donald Trump raised $62 million in the first half of this year, but only spent $3 million, with the largest sum of money going to support Trump More than 65,000 US dollars went to Trump’s research center. According to federal records released on Saturday, owns its own hotel.

Shortly after Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election, he established the Save America Committee in November. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the commission has broad leeway in how to use its funds.

A document submitted to FEC shows that Save America donated $1 million to the First Policy Research Institute of the United States in June, a non-profit organization run by veterans of his administration.

The group’s leadership includes Brook Rollins (NYSE:), who leads the White House Domestic Policy Committee under Trump, and Larry Kudlow, who leads Trump’s National Economic Committee.

According to the Save America document, the money spent at the Trump Hotel is described as being used to pay for accommodation or meals.

According to reports, another Trump-controlled committee, a former campaign account, now called the “Make America Great Again” PAC, spent an additional $13 million in the first half of this year, mainly to pay legal fees and Trump Efforts to reverse the November election failure. Separate FEC file.

The Trump office said he helped raise nearly $82 million between January and June, and the two committees jointly raised most of the funds.

The Trump-linked committee ended this period with nearly $102 million in cash, which could help the former president exert considerable influence before next year’s Republican elections in which the Republican Party hopes to win congressional control. Democrats have only a small majority in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

However, although Trump is the top fundraiser of his party and continues to raise large sums of money for the Republican National Committee, his committee did not provide any funds to political candidates in the first half of this year.

A spokesperson for his office said that a check for $5,000 was sent to candidates he supported in July. Detailed information on these donations is expected to be provided in the FEC document to be submitted later this year.

Many candidates Trump supports, especially those who challenge incumbent Republicans or seek vacant seats, lag far behind their opponents in fundraising. Trump-backed Kelly Tshubaka is challenging the Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The funds in her campaign bank account were at the end of June. Koski lost about $2 million.

Republicans will face well-funded Democrats in next year’s election.

According to a disclosure submitted on Saturday, the Democratic Party raised more than $373 million in online donations through ActBlue, the party’s main payment processor, in the first six months of this year. This exceeds the $258 million that Republicans raised through the online payment processor WinRed during the same period.