While Trump’s legal battles have been both a boost and a drain on his campaign finances, Biden’s fundraising has been buoyed by a recent haul. Foreign Editor David Pratt takes a close look at their respective war chests

It was the great American writer Mark Twain who once made the immortal quip about having “the best government money can buy.” Certainly, American governments don’t come cheap and never have. That much was never more apparent than back in 2020 when Joe Biden and Donald Trump went head to head in a presidential contest where the final tally in the battle for the White House and control of the Senate and the House came in at an eye watering $14.4 billion.

While most Americans in principal would likely agree with former president Barack Obama’s assertion that “it should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our democracy,” things simply don’t work that way in US politics – or any politics for that matter.

With a rematch of the 2020 contest between Biden and Trump most likely on the cards, already this year’s While House race is running true to form on the financial front even if the polls have yet to reflect that.

According to a recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll, Trump is leading Biden in seven swing states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But 53 per cent of the registered voters surveyed said they would be unwilling to vote for Trump if he were convicted of a crime.

For his part Trump might be closing his grip on the Republican nomination but as new campaign financial records filed with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) last week have revealed, his campaign is haemorrhaging millions in donor money to cover his mounting legal expenses stemming from multiple lawsuits and four criminal cases.

It all comes down to money (Image: free)

Fundraising has always been one of Trump’s strong suits and in fact the more scandal ridden he has been, the more money supporters appear willing to give. Currently that remains the case as donations to his presidential campaign fighting fund continue to come in at a fast pace.

The problem for Trump thought is that almost as fast as such sums come in, out they go again to shore up the cost of the numerous legal battles that beset him. According to recent data released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and analysed by The Economist, Trump raised more than $75m in the second half of 2023, up from nearly $54m in the first, bringing his haul in 2023 to $129m.

As The Economist’s analysis highlights, much of this money was raised while Trump was mired in headline scandals. For example in the two weeks after his indictment in March on allegations that he concealed hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress, the campaign raised $15.4m.

Then again when Trump was indicted in June for allegedly mishandling classified documents he took in another $6.6m in less than a week. By August after the former president was charged with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, he raised $9.4m.

After surrendering to........

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