EXCLUSIVE — The recent Supreme Court decision nuking limits on money a candidate can spend in coordination with party committees is at least partially slowing the mobilization of President Donald Trump’s gargantuan campaign war chest, according to Republican insiders.
Still, the president’s political team isn’t letting outside noise, even from Republicans urging Trump to increase his spending on races, cloud their strategy. Since leaving office in 2021 and launching super PAC, MAGA Inc., Trump’s team has kept its cards close to the chest, according to a veteran GOP operative who works directly with MAGA Inc. The group, unlike some other political groups the operative declined to name directly, prefers not to telegraph to the “other side” exactly how the group is spending its money.
“That’s been the general [modus operandi] of the entire Trump operation,” that person explained, pointing to the nearly $30 million campaign the PAC ran against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) during the last general election cycle. “We didn’t preview when we spent on DeSantis in 2023. We just spent.”
The Supreme Court decision itself was anxiously awaited by GOP campaign officials, as the removal of the old rules greatly favored the party this cycle, given the committees’ significant cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly mobilized after the Supreme Court ruling. In a memo, the NRSC claimed that voter contact would be “executed as coordinated spending, developed directly with campaigns” to help get better rates on broadcast and cable advertising.
Persons familiar told the Washington Examiner that Republican committee officials had been preparing for coordinated limits to end months ahead of this summer’s ruling but are still hashing out details “on the specifics of the hard dollar side,” including “things like lowest unit rate for TV ads and which entity should handle what.”
Candidates are entitled to the lowest unit rate, which allows candidates to pay the cheapest advertising price offered by a TV station. Other outside groups are required to pay a higher rate, but the recent Supreme Court decision ignited a legal debate about whether coordinated spending will be afforded the lowest rate.
Once the committees work out those finer points, Trump is expected to open up the floodgates.
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MAGA Inc. rounded out June with more than $400 million on hand, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing, a $50 million jump from the end of March. Much of the June increase was contributed by billionaire entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who gave $10 million. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and the Georgia gubernatorial candidate and billionaire Rick Jackson each gave $1 million.
Since super PACs cannot legally coordinate directly with candidates or committees, Trump‘s political team will be paying close attention to where the party decides to officially allocate its resources and will take that information into account for its own spending strategies, a person familiar told the Washington Examiner.
“Everyone is saying MAGA Inc. will spend. The narrative they won’t is bulls***,” that person stated, adding that what’s still “TBD” is in what exact districts, and when, MAGA Inc.’s ad campaigns will run.
The overwhelming majority of what MAGA Inc. spent in June went to bank fees, credit card payments, fundraising consulting, and merchant fees.
Still, Trump’s political team previously told the Washington Examiner that ads will have a multipronged focus: both looking to tie Republican candidates to the “positives” secured in last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while simultaneously attacking Democrats by generally lifting up Democratic Socialists of America and other progressives.
“Talarico is going to be a standard-bearer for how left-wing Democrats are, because of how much attention he’s gotten, how much he’s said on the record,” one person close to the president told the Washington Examiner. “They’re going to support him. They’re going to say they can play. OK, well, let’s play.”
The president raised eyebrows already this cycle by actively primarying Republicans who defy his political will, but Trump aides outright denied the idea that Trump is using his war chest to leverage support for the SAVE America Act, election integrity legislation the president continues to push against the wishes of many Senate Republicans.
A veteran Republican operative who works closely with MAGA Inc. told the Washington Examiner that they’d “never heard about the SAVE America thing from anyone I work with,” calling the idea “just speculation.”
One longtime adviser to the president told the Washington Examiner that, despite calls from Republicans for Trump to let the cash flow, he’s waiting to see which races are the tightest in the final stretch.
Trump has historically been averse to wasting resources on candidates he doesn’t think can win. A June FEC report showed MAGA Inc. spent just $560,000 to MAGA KY, which helped oust Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his primary against Ed Gallrein. This is not one of the battleground races that will decide control of the House or Senate.
As the GOP awaits MAGA Inc.’s help, they can still rely on the help of other deep-pocketed groups.
The Republican National Committee had roughly $129 million at the end of June, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee had $56 million cash on hand, and the National Republican Congressional Committee had nearly $93 million cash on hand.
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The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), has $141.8 million cash on hand, while the Senate Leadership Fund is sitting on nearly $239 million cash on hand.
The CLF has already committed to at least $175 million in ad reservations this fall in dozens of markets.