Trump faces warning signs that his fundraising prowess may have limits in 2024 campaign

Former US President Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Waterford Township, Michigan, on Feb. 17, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 22 February 2024
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Trump faces warning signs that his fundraising prowess may have limits in 2024 campaign

  • Trump’s diminished cashflow presents an alarming picture of the overwhelming favorite to be the GOP’s presidential nominee
  • Despite threats of vengeance by Trump, some donors are instead backing his last standing rival, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s legendary ability to raise massive sums of political cash may be on a collision course with a new and unpleasant reality.

Campaign finance reports released this week flashed bright warning lights, showing two key committees in his political operation raised an anemic $13.8 million in January while collectively spending more than they took in. A major driver of those costs was millions of dollars in legal fees from Trump’s myriad of court cases.
The latest numbers offer only a partial snapshot of the Trump operation’s finances because other branches won’t have to disclose their numbers until April. But Trump’s diminished cashflow nonetheless presents an alarming picture of the overwhelming favorite to be the GOP’s presidential nominee, particularly to would-be donors who aren’t eager to subsidize Trump’s legal challenges.
Despite threats of vengeance by Trump, some are instead backing his last standing rival, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who outraised Trump’s primary campaign committee by nearly $3 million last month.




Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, talks with a young supporter after speaking at a campaign event on Feb. 19, 2024, in Camden, South Carolina. (AP)

In a statement, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not directly address the campaign’s finances.
“President Trump’s campaign is fueled by small-dollar donors across the country from every background who are sick and tired of Crooked Joe Biden’s record-high inflation, wide open border invasion, crime and chaos,” Leavitt said. “Voters don’t want four more years of misery and destruction.”
When asked specifically about the numbers, a Trump spokesman texted a link to a Fox News story published Tuesday, stating that Trump was expected to raise $6 million at a fundraiser held that day.
Legal fees dominated Trump’s January expenditures, amounting to $3.7 million of $15.3 million spent by the two committees. One of the committees, Save America, also held nearly $2 million in unpaid legal debts, the records show.
Save America was bolstered with a cash infusion from a pro-Trump super PAC.
The committee received another $5 million “refund” installment from the super PAC “Make America Great Again Inc.,” which was initially seeded through a $60 million from Save America in the fall of 2022. Instead, Trump campaign officials opted to claw that money back in installments, a running total that has now reached $47 million, records show.
That left Trump’s two committees with $36.6 million in cash on hand compared to Biden’s $132 million stockpile, which he and the Democratic National Committee raised $42 million for in January.
“His endless drama and legal bills will deplete the Republican Party and bring even more electoral losses,” Haley’s communications director, Nachama Soloveichik, said in a statement.
The latest tranche of legal bills comes at a sensitive time, as Trump is orchestrating a takeover of the cash-strapped Republican National Committee, where he plans to install his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the party’s No. 2 official. Some donors and RNC committee members worry that Trump may soon turn to the RNC to help cover his legal bills, too, considering Trump has made claims of legal persecution a pillar of his campaign.
“Every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC,” Lara Trump said during a recent interview on the conservative network NewsMax, which she added was to focus on electing Donald Trump.




Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump, signs a campaign material after speaking at a VFW Hall in Beaufort, South Carolina on Feb. 21, 2024. (AFP)

What’s not clear is how much of a drag his prodigious legal spending will be on his finances.
The RNC is also facing headwinds of its own, reporting $8.7 million on hand at the end of January, reports show.
Though Trump’s financially strained position is unusual for the odds-on favorite to clinch a major party’s nomination, there is ample time to reenergize his fundraising. It’s still early in the campaign and — assuming he becomes the nominee — he will be able to raise money in concert with the RNC, which should enable him to receive a check from a single donor worth upwards of $1 million. That’s an advantage that Biden and the DNC currently hold over him.
Over the past year, he’s also used pivotal moments in his ongoing legal drama, including his indictment hearings, to open a spigot of campaign cash from his large base of conservative supporters, who chip in small amounts online.
Still, Trump’s cash woes place him in a familiar, if unwelcome, position that echoes the 2020 presidential race, when he and his aides plowed through $1 billion and a large cash advantage over Biden amid profligate spending.
Trump approached the 2024 race with over $100 million, a substantial amount of which was raised in the early days after his 2020 election loss to Biden, when he bombarded supporters with solicitations for an “election defense fund.” This time, legal fees have proven to be a drain, costing over $80 million over the past two years, records show.
Democrats have reacted with glee.
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks if you are Donald Trump and also like money,” said Ammar Moussa, a Biden campaign spokesman. “The RNC had its worst fundraising year in decades, is hemorrhaging cash, and now Trump enters the general election with the weakest operation in recent history.”


UK’s Starmer discussed Ukraine war with leaders of US, Italy, France and Germany

Updated 9 sec ago
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UK’s Starmer discussed Ukraine war with leaders of US, Italy, France and Germany

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the US, Italy, France and Germany, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Looking ahead to US President Donald Trump’s call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for Putin to take peace talks seriously, the spokesperson said.
They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks, the spokesperson added.
UK’s Foreign Minister David Lammy on Saturday accused Moscow of obfuscating after talks between Ukraine and Russia on a possible ceasefire ended in less than two hours and Trump said “nothing could happen” until he had met directly with Putin.


Paris airport chaos to enter second day after air traffic breakdown

Updated 31 min 45 sec ago
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Paris airport chaos to enter second day after air traffic breakdown

  • The breakdown hit on Sunday and has affected thousands of passengers

ORLY, France: An air traffic control breakdown at Paris-Orly airport caused the cancelation and delay of hundreds of flights and the aviation authority said the chaos would extend into Monday.
The breakdown hit on Sunday and has affected thousands of passengers with some already sat in planes at the French capital’s second biggest airport when flights were canceled.
The control tower breakdown forced the cancelation of about 130 flights in and out of Orly Sunday, officials said.
It had not been resolved by late Sunday and the DGAC French civil aviation authority said it was “asking airlines to reduce their flight schedules by 15 percent” on Monday and warned that “delays are expected.”
“The situation is improving but still requires traffic regulation,” the DGAC said.
The authority blamed an air traffic control “malfunction.” An airport source said there had been a “radar failure.”
Flights to European and North Africa destinations and across France were among those hit. Long queues formed at terminals amid a frenzied rush to find alternative transport.
“We were in the aircraft, all seated and strapped in, ready to go, when they made us disembark and collect our bags ... then began the ordeal,” said Azgal Abichou, a 63-year-old business owner.
“The only option is a 300 euro flight — and there’s only one seat left, but there are two of us and we are not even sure it will take off,” said Romane Penault, a 22-year-old student. “So for now, we’re going home.”
Agnes Zilouri, 46, tried desperately to find a seat for her 86-year-old mother and six year old son in the terminal. The family should have taken a flight to Oujda in Morocco on Sunday evening to go to a funeral.
“The flight is canceled. Fortunately I am with my mother,” she said.
Last year Orly handled about 33 million passengers, approximately half the number of the main Paris Charles de Gaulle international airport.


Authorities say suspect in California fertility clinic bombing left behind ‘anti-pro-life’ writings

Updated 19 May 2025
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Authorities say suspect in California fertility clinic bombing left behind ‘anti-pro-life’ writings

  • US Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the writings “anti-pro-life”

A 25-year-old man the FBI believes was responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic left behind “anti-pro-life” writings before carrying out an attack investigators are calling an act of terrorism, authorities said Sunday.
Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was identified by the FBI as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the clinic in the upscale city of Palm Springs in the desert east of Los Angeles.
Investigators believe Barktus died in the blast, which a senior FBI official called possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.” A body was found near a charred vehicle outside the clinic.
Bartkus attempted to livestream the explosion and left behind writings that communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. US Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the writings “anti-pro-life.”
The Associated Press reported Saturday night that those writings professed a sentiment that the world should not be populated.
“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis said Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”
The bombing injured four other people, though Davis said all embryos at the facility were saved.
“Good guys one, bad guys zero,” he said.
Authorities were executing a search warrant in Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Palm Springs, as part of the investigation.
The suspect posted writings online and attempted to record the explosion, though authorities said the video failed to upload. An official who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP.
The blast gutted the single-story American Reproductive Centers clinic, though a doctor said its staff members were safe.
“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,” Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told the AP in a phone interview Saturday.


Former US President Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer

Updated 19 May 2025
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Former US President Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer

  • Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after having experienced urinary symptoms

Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after having experienced urinary symptoms, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors, the statement said.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said.
Biden, who served as president from 2021 to 2025, abruptly ended his bid for reelection last July, weeks after a halting performance during a debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump prompted panic among his fellow Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the party’s nominee but lost in November to Trump.
Biden’s physical health and mental acuity drew intense media scrutiny even before the debate. At the time of his election, Biden was the oldest person to win the presidency.
Trump, 78, broke that record when he defeated Harris last year.


Anti-immigration minister becomes leader of French conservatives

Updated 18 May 2025
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Anti-immigration minister becomes leader of French conservatives

  • Bruno Retailleau has become leader of the conservative Republican party (LR), which traces its origins to postwar leader Charles de Gaulle

PARIS: France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who has called for radical action to cut immigration numbers, easily won an election to become leader of the conservative Republican party (LR), according to results released Sunday.
Retailleau won 74 percent of the vote from party members against 25 percent for Laurent Wauquiez, the head of the party in the French national assembly.
Although LR and its allies hold only 60 seats in France’s 577-member national assembly and the party candidate barely registered in the 2022 presidential vote, experts predict a better run in 2027 when President Emmanuel Macron must step down.
The LR’s last leader Eric Ciotti quit the party last year after calling for an alliance with the far-right National Rally (RN). The LR has wrangled since over its stance but has adopted a tougher line on issues such as immigration.
National opinion polls currently suggest the RN would perform well in the 2027 election, which has however been shaken by legal woes for its figurehead Marine Le Pen.
Retailleau, in his government post since last year, has emerged as one of the most high-profile ministers in the centrist-led coalition government. He said he would stay in the government but he is likely to use his victory to press his case for the presidency.
“Our political family is now able to carry our project forward for the presidential election,” Retailleau told broadcaster TF1 after the results were announced.
The LR is the successor of the UMP, which traces its origins to postwar leader Charles de Gaulle and was the party of former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Some 80 percent of the 120,000 LR party members took part in the weekend vote for the leader. The LR membership had increased from 43,859 to 121,617 in the two months before the leadership election.