Trump V.S. GOP; Winner Takes Big Donors

Former President Donald Trump is competing with the GOP’s fundraising operation and lashing out at its members, further complicating his status as a Republican Party leader. The former president this week escalated a standoff over the Republican Party’s financial future, blasting party leaders and urging his backers to send donations to his new political action committee — not to the institutional groups that traditionally control the G.O.P.’s coffers. “No more money for RINOS. They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness,” his tweet-length statement said. “Send your donation to Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com. We will bring it all back stronger than ever before!” Trump, without specifying his targets by name, asserted that they “do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness.”

Trump’s relationship with GOP standard-bearers has been rocky since he left office in January. In February, he called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “dour, sullen, unsmiling political hack” after McConnell upbraided Trump for stoking the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Redirecting the flow of Republican money into his own war chest, if successful, could help Trump tighten his grip on the party as he aims to undermine his perceived enemies within it. But experts say promoting his own PAC could also carry other perks for Trump. PACs such as Save America can raise donations for political expenditures such as supporting candidates, and Trump could use his to lay the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2024. But they “also can be used for just about anything else,” said Brendan Fischer, Federal Reform Program director at the Campaign Legal Center. This leaves one to question whether the supposed Trumpist sect of the Republican party can eventually force rebranding or even greater influence with Trump at the helm.