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Donald Trump on Saturday cast doubt on the legality of the campaign funds utilized by his biggest GOP rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Trump and DeSantis are currently the leading candidates in the packed race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The former president has consistently led the race by huge margins, regularly receiving over 50 percent support in primary polls, while the Florida governor has regularly been the only other candidate to garner support in the double digits.
As his main rival in pursuit of the nomination, DeSantis has frequently been targeted by Trump, before and during his campaign, on various grounds. On Saturday afternoon, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, with an allegation that DeSantis was illegally transferring funds from a prior gubernatorial race to this presidential campaign, amid other attacks on the state of his presidential ambitions.
"Ron DeSanctimonious is desperately trying to get out of the Presidential race, while at the same time saving face for 2028, where he has been greatly damaged," Trump wrote. "Jeff Roe, Ron's boss despite having a terrible record of winning, is spending money like a wild man gone bad. Much of the money being used was raised for his Gubernatorial race, and transferred over (illegally?) because his Presidential donors have largely fled do [sic] to his terrible, and still falling, poll numbers. Ron is just wasting time!"
Newsweek could not independently confirm Trump's claims about DeSantis' use of funds. Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office via email for comment, and to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for insight into the laws concerning such matters.
Trump himself has also been the subject of scrutiny over his campaign's use of donations. In late June, The New York Times reported that Trump's fundraising emails had quietly changed their fine print to note an increase in the amount of money being diverted from donations to his "Save America" political action committee (PAC). When the campaign started, only 1 percent of donations were sent to the PAC, but now the amount is listed as 10 percent.
Among other things, the "Save America" PAC has reportedly been providing funds to help pay the former president's mounting legal bills. During a Saturday appearance on MSNBC, former GOP staffer and current Lincoln Project operative Tara Setmayer called this arrangement "the grift that keeps on giving."
"Look, since the RNC [Republican National Committee] is not paying for his legal bills anymore, they have to figure out a way to pay his legal bills and the Donald Trump campaign has done nothing but sucker his supporters," Setmayer told host Jonathan Capehart. "Lincoln Project put an ad out about that called 'Sucker' a couple months ago, and we re-upped because it continues to happen and yet these people still gravitate towards him, because whether you like it or not, Donald Trump is a genius at communicating to these folks and making them believe he is their champion."
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign recently claimed that it raised roughly $35 million in the second quarter of 2023 alone, seeing notable bumps in the wake of his various criminal indictments in which the former president plead not guilty to.
About the writer
Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more