Trump's legal fees slush fund is drying up [View all]

Source: MS NOW News

Apr. 17, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT


President Donald Trump’s army of lawyers may be the largest of any Oval Office occupant in history. Aside from the attorneys who work for the office of the president, he has retained a veritable phalanx of personal attorneys over the years to represent him in court. That kind of legal firepower doesn’t come cheap. But according to recent Federal Election Commission filings, the funding stream Trump has been using to pay out millions to law firms is running very, very low on cash.

Trump spent much of his time between presidential terms fending off a string of civil and criminal cases. Despite the mounting threats, he remained loath to spend out of his own deep pockets to cover the equally mounting legal fees. Instead, Trump routed money from the donations pouring into his political action committees, primarily Save America PAC. Some of the money diverted toward legal fees also came from Make America Great Again PAC, the reskinned shell of his 2020 re-election campaign.

Between the two committees, Trump funneled $50 million toward his legal fees over the course of 2023 alone. It was a massive expenditure in an off year, especially with the 2024 presidential race looming. The New York Times reported in July 2023 that Save America was facing “dwindling cash reserves,” when it only had $4 million in its coffers after starting 2022 with $105 million.

Both PACs are in a much worse financial state now that Trump isn’t actively running for president. Based on its quarterly filing with the FEC, Save America has $1.19 million in cash on hand. That would be a tidy sum for you or me, but Save America also owes a total of $1.6 million, all of which is meant to cover previous “legal consulting” or “reimbursement for legal fees and expenses.” Those debts are what is left after the committee already spent almost $2.3 million covering those budget items so far this year.

Read more: https://www.ms.now/opinion/trumps-legal-fees-donations-fec