Campaign finance reports

Biden’s budding behemoth, Trump’s legal spending and other takeaways from campaign finance reports

The major presidential candidates latest filings hardly could have been more different from one another.

By JESSICA PIPER and STEVEN SHEPARD

Donald Trump is spending as much on legal bills as he is on campaigning. Joe Biden, meanwhile, is building a reelection behemoth.

Campaign finance reports filed this week underscored the unusual nature of this campaign: the current president running against his predecessor, who is more preoccupied with his criminal trial than the campaign trail.

Like most incumbent presidents, Biden is outgunning Trump, raising and spending multiple times more than the presumptive GOP nominee, especially with his post-State of the Union ramp-up last month.

But the two aren’t even in the same ballpark. A PAC controlled by Trump spent almost as much on legal bills as his campaign did on anything else — and Biden’s campaign outspent Trump’s by nearly eight-to-one.

Trump still has a strong fundraising base, and his financial network is banking money for the fall. But his cash stockpile is far lower than Biden’s, and much of what Trump and his allies are raising has paid for lawyers.

Here are five takeaways from the new reports, which covered all activity through the end of March:

Biden’s campaign is light years ahead of Trump’s

Both Biden and Trump have a whole constellation of fundraising vehicles — both officially under their control and those that are required to operate independently. But the simplest distillation of the asymmetry between their levels of activity so far is the spending from their campaigns last month.

That’s the money spent on direct campaign activities, like producing and placing advertising, employee payroll and political consulting. And just from the totals, you’d be forgiven for thinking the two men were running for different offices.

Biden’s campaign spent $29.2 million in March, much of which — about $21.8 million — went toward advertising. The president’s campaign launched a major advertising blitz in seven swing states following last month’s State of the Union address.

In contrast, Trump’s campaign, which is mostly keeping its powder dry for the fall, spent just $3.7 million. His other groups did spend money on fundraising costs and legal fees — but when it came to core campaign outlays in March, Biden outspent Trump by nearly a factor of eight. Trump’s campaign spent less last month than Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — perhaps the most vulnerable senator from either party — did for his reelection bid.

And it’s not as simple as Biden was advertising in March, and Trump wasn’t. In other ways outlined in their reports, the incumbent’s campaign is more robust. Biden spent $2.3 million on payroll in March — nearly four times Trump’s $597,000.

The former president and his allies may yet catch up to Biden’s spending, but outside of a small TV ad buy from the main Trump-aligned super PAC in Pennsylvania this week, there’s little sign that’s happening anytime soon.

Legal fees continue to suck up pro-Trump money

Trump’s leadership PAC spent nearly as much on legal bills in March as his campaign spent on everything else. His leadership PAC, Save America, has now spent about $60 million on legal consulting since the start of last year. Among the firms paid by the PAC in March were two that are representing Trump in his New York criminal case.

Save America’s legal spending has only been possible because a pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has refunded it to the tune of over $57 million — money that the leadership PAC had transferred to the super PAC in 2022, before Trump became a presidential candidate again. If Trump had not needed that money for legal bills, however, it could have gone towards advertising or other normal super PAC activities. The continued legal spending underscores how much Trump’s many legal troubles have vacuumed up resources that otherwise could have been devoted to helping his presidential bid.

Trump may need to find a new funding source for legal bills as Save America is down to just $4 million in the bank and can only get $2.75 million more from MAGA Inc.

Putting the Biden ad blitz in context

Trailing narrowly in the polls for most of the past six months, Biden’s campaign is off to a historically fast start — mostly out of necessity.

Biden’s nearly $30 million in campaign spending in March put him about two to three months ahead of Trump’s spending pace as the incumbent four years ago.

Though we’re loath to compare anything to the infamous days of the spring of 2020, Trump spent $9.6 million in March and $7.8 million in April — before his spending swelled to $24.5 million in May and $50.3 million in June.

Though there’s still 10 days left, April is set to be another expensive month for Biden, who has already spent or reserved more than $13 million in ads this month, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Even with all his spending, the president is still banking money for the rest of the campaign. Across his fundraising vehicles and including the Democratic National Committee, Biden had $192.9 million in cash on hand as of March 30, the new reports show. Trump, meanwhile, had $93.1 million.

A Trump collab isn’t enough for the RNC to close its money gap

The Republican National Committee raised $20 million in March, by far its best month so far. A big reason for that surge in fundraising was the committee’s ability to team up with Trump after he became the party’s de-facto nominee in early March; more than half its receipts came in in the last few days of the month through the Trump 47 Committee, a newly launched joint fundraising committee that can accept massive checks.

But even that influx of cash did not put the RNC in the same league as its Democratic counterpart. The Democratic National Committee raised $34 million in March and has more than double the cash on hand of the RNC: $45 million to $21 million.

That underscores how difficult it will be for the RNC to claw its way back toward any sort of financial parity. Even as the committee starts to right the ship, the Democrats’ advantage is tough to surmount. As the fall approaches, it means the DNC is likely to have more resources to boost Biden and downballot Democrats, while the RNC is more likely to be stretched thin.

RFK Jr. faces real shortfalls

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign managed not to spend more than it brought in, but only because his vice presidential pick, lawyer Nicole Shanahan, chipped in millions of her own money.

Shanahan could contribute much more as the campaign continues. But relatively weak fundraising otherwise by Kennedy’s world is calling into question his ability to make the ballot in every state and run a serious campaign operation this fall.

The pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values, brought in only $1.2 million in March, although a spokesperson said that did not include more than $2 million from an end-of-month fundraiser that will show up on the group’s next report. Still, the group lacks the megadonor backing of other presidential super PACs. Two of the top donors to American Values this cycle are intimately involved with his campaign: Gavin de Becker as a security consultant who has had most of his donations refunded in an unusual arrangement, and Shanahan now as his vice presidential pick. The third major donor, Timothy Mellon, is also a donor to Trump’s super PAC.

Big donors to super PACs are not the only way to boost a campaign. But if Kennedy’s campaign is only raising a few million dollars a month, it would need to rely on a super PAC to get on air in key states. And that’s if he can even make the ballot everywhere, which remains an open question.

To be clear, Kennedy doesn’t need major cash to potentially play a spoiler in November if he can gain ballot access in even a handful of battleground states. But to mount an operation where he can plausibly claim to be anything more than that, he’s going to need more money than what he has been able to rake in so far.