Steps on the gas

Biden’s cash edge widens, Trump’s lawyer fees pile up and other takeaways from latest filings

By Fredreka Schouten, David Wright and Alex Leeds Matthews

Donald Trump’s campaign saw an uptick in donations in February but failed to match the accelerating fundraising pace set by Joe Biden, whose political operation widened its already substantial financial advantage over his Republican rival as it entered March and the general election showdown, new filings show.

The February financial reports filed Wednesday night also underscore the continued steep price of Trump’s legal troubles: Legal bills alone outstripped the money Trump’s leadership PAC took in last month.

Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy Jr. – whose independent White House bid is facing increasing scrutiny and criticism from Democrats – is racking up big bills as an allied super PAC spent heavily to help him break through to voters and gain access to the ballot in more states.

Here are some key takeaways from new campaign filings for the month of February:

Biden steps on the gas

The new filings, which cover only a portion of the committees associated with each presidential contender, continue to show Biden’s early fundraising dominance.

The president ended February with $71 million in available cash in his principal campaign account – more than twice the $33.5 million in cash reserves held by Trump’s campaign. Biden expanded the gap seen at the end of January when his campaign had nearly $56 million in available funds to Trump’s roughly $30.5 million.

The filings also show that the Democratic National Committee ended February with more than twice the cash on hand as its Republican counterpart, buttressing Democrats’ financial edge over a political operation that Trump is working to build with the national GOP now that he is the party’s presumptive nominee.

Some groups affiliated with the presidential contenders will not disclose their balance sheets to federal regulators until next month, but totals released by the two candidates’ campaigns highlight the disparity between them at the end of February.

Trump’s campaign and joint fundraising committee together brought in $20.3 million in February and entered this month with a combined $41.9 million cash on hand, a Trump campaign official told CNN.

Those amounts trail far behind the $53 million that Biden and Democrats previously announced raising in February and the massive $155 million in available cash that the president’s team said it had amassed with its affiliated committees.

In the face of his campaign fundraising crunch, Trump has taken a more hands-on approach to donors, including meeting with contributors at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The former president is slated to headline a high-ticket fundraiser next month in Palm Beach, where top contributors can have dinner at his table, among other perks, according to an invitation obtained by CNN.

Trump’s leadership PAC continues to rack up legal bills

Wednesday’s filings also underscore the financial strain of Trump’s continued legal woes.

The Save America leadership PAC – which Trump has used as a vehicle to help underwrite lawyers’ fees incurred by him and allies – spent nearly $5.6 million on legal bills in February.

Those expenses exceeded the Save America’s total receipts, most of which came in the form of a $5 million refund that the PAC received from a Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc. In all, Save America has clawed back more than $52 million from the super PAC, diverting resources from an account intended to help support Trump’s presidential bid to pay off his mounting legal bills.

Save America is on track to soon exhaust the $60 million in refunds it previously requested from MAGA Inc.

Trump faces 88 criminal charges in four jurisdictions and also is scrambling to secure a half-a-billion-dollar bond to appeal his civil fraud judgment in New York.

A joint fundraising agreement that Trump’s campaign recently inked with the national and state Republican parties will set aside of share of the money it collects to benefit Save America, a potential way to boost the leadership PAC’s dwindling balance.

Hotelier donates $5 million to Trump super PAC

MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC, took in $12.7 million in February – boosted by a $5 million contribution from Nevada-based hotelier and space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow.

Bigelow – who previously supported the campaign of onetime Trump rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – is among several wealthy Republican donors slated to attend a high-dollar fundraiser next month to benefit Trump and the Republican Party.

Other Trump super PAC contributors last month included former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler and businessman James Liautaud.

Kennedy-aligned super PAC boosts spending

A super PAC aligned with Kennedy boosted its spending in February, pouring resources into advertising and ballot-access efforts, the new reports show.

American Values 2024, the lead super PAC supporting Kennedy’s campaign, reported spending nearly $8.8 million last month, a dramatic increase over the $1.4 million it had spent in January. The biggest expense in February: more than $6 million to CBS for a high-profile and controversial Super Bowl ad that repurposed a spot from the 1960 presidential campaign of the candidate’s late uncle.

The group also reported spending about $950,000 on ballot access endeavors as Kennedy seeks a place on presidential candidate rosters in the fall.

American Values 2024 reported raising $4.2 million last month, with $4 million coming from megadonor ally Gavin de Becker.

De Becker, a private security company executive, previously donated $10 million to the super PAC and has been refunded $9.65 million – in an unusual arrangement that super PAC officials have previously described as “bridge funding.”

Super PAC officials did not immediately respond to a CNN inquiry Wednesday about the $4 million donation in February from de Becker. His firm also has been a top vendor to Kennedy’s campaign.

Earlier this month, the DNC filed a complaint against the super PAC, alleging the group had failed to properly disclose de Becker’s activity as loans and loan repayments. American Values 2024 did not report refunding any more contributions in February.

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s principal campaign committee raised $3.2 million and spent nearly $2.9 million last month. It entered March with about $5.1 million in cash on hand and had more than $1.3 million in debts to de Becker’s firm for security services and travel costs.