Former US President Donald Trump is getting ready to kick off his third bid for the White House despite indications that his hold on the Republican Party is eroding. He hopes to move past his terrible midterm setbacks and make history.
Trump wanted to utilize the GOP's predicted victory in last week's elections to secure early support and stave off possible rivals. However, he was criticized for endorsing losing candidates following dismal midterm election outcomes, in which Democrats maintained control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to AP News.
Trump Tensions With Fellow Republicans
The ex-POTUS posted Monday on his social media accounts: "Hopefully, tomorrow will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our Country!" The Palm Beach nightclub is where he is slated to make an announcement around 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Incredibly, the first president in history to be impeached twice and whose loyalists brutally stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a tragic attempt to disrupt the peaceful change of power, is running for office again. Grover Cleveland was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1884 and 1892).
Criminal investigations against Trump are also heating up, with the Justice Department looking into the hundreds of sensitive documents found in his Mar-a-Lago residence.
According to aides, per CNN, Trump is hopeful that his early entry into the 2024 presidential primary would shift the focus away from Republican failings and infuse a new wave of energy into a party that is feeling discouraged following the GOP's failure to gain control of the Senate and a substantial House majority.
Though the former president has been boasting his 200-plus triumphs on Election Night, many Trump-supported Republicans, ran unopposed or were generally anticipated to win. But several Senate candidates he endorsed in highly valued races failed to unseat their Democratic rivals or shift vacant positions to the Republicans.
In the end, Donald Trump admitted, the results were "somewhat disappointing" for his party. Thus, he already shifted to securing a second term in Washington and blasting two GOP governors who may threaten his place as the party's centerpiece, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.
Donald Trump's Massive Campaign Funds
The billionaire Republican politician has about $100 million in campaign cash spread among several political action organizations at this point. Though, Donald Trump won't be able to directly utilize much of the money on his current presidential bid.
The reason for this is that Save America, a "leadership PAC" that Trump has used to raise nearly $100 million after the conclusion of his 2020 campaign, cannot be legally changed into a presidential campaign account.
One watchdog organization says the former president may be searching for a legal loophole by dumping some or all of that funds into a new mega PAC called "MAGA, Inc." and using that committee to indirectly assist his 2024 campaign by airing advertisements targeting his competitors or supporting Trump's bid.
Saurav Ghosh, head of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center said he believes Trump's attorneys recognize that spending via Save America to help Trump's campaign would have been "too blatantly illegal," the Insider reported.
Ghosh said that Trump's legal team may feel safer shifting the funding to a super PAC, as one source put it. Monday, the Campaign Legal Center filed a lawsuit with the FEC charging Donald Trump broke federal law when he moved $20 million from Save America to MAGA Inc.
According to the group, Donald Trump has been hinting about a second presidential run for months but avoided officially declaring his candidacy to circumvent financing restrictions placed on legitimate candidates by law. With the $69 million held by Save America, the $23 million owned by MAGA, Inc., and around $1 million kept by another PAC that served as his former campaign account, Trump's war chest today totals nearly $93 million.
Federal law limits Save America to donating $5,000 to Trump's unofficial 2024 campaign account. Campaign Legal contends that by moving the money to MAGA, Inc., which Trump has sanctioned, the former president breached a legal restriction on "soft money," or money that surpasses standard federal donation limitations. Trump's spokesperson did not immediately comment on the issue.
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