Donald Trump builds $102 million war chest after massive fundraising haul

Former President Donald Trump has not yet announced whether he'll run for president in 2024, but that hasn't stopped his campaign from bringing in a massive fundraising haul. Trump is armed with a whopping $102 million war chest heading into the 2022 midterms and the 2024 general election, new federal campaign finance filings show.

Trump's political committees raked in $82 million during the first half of 2021, and have $102 million in the bank, according to federal filings. Trump, who has been expelled from all of the major social media platforms, raised nearly as much as the Democrats and Republicans in the first six months of 2021.

According to Federal Election Commission records, the Democratic National Committee raised $87.1 million in the first half of 2021, as reported by Open Secrets, a self-described nonpartisan, independent, and nonprofit research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. The Republican National Committee reported raising $85 million from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.

"Trump-affiliated groups have raised a total of more than $56m on the online Republican fundraising platform WinRed, leapfrogging the Republican National Committee ($19m) and the Republican Senate and House party committees combined ($23m raised by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $26m raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee)," the Financial Times reported.

Trump's Save America PAC fundraised more than $62 million, but only spent a little more than $3 million as of June 30. Of the $3.2 million spent, a $1 million donation went to the America First Policy Institute, which is a nonprofit involved in Trump's class-action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter.

Trump spent over $13 million from his Make America Great Again PAC account, with the "bulk of it on legal and consulting fees related to 2020 election recount efforts."

The stockpile of cash could be used in the 2022 midterm elections to assist Republicans or help America First-friendly GOP candidates primary never-Trump Republicans, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who Trump vowed to campaign against. The Republicans desperately desire to take back the House and Senate from the Democrats in the midterms, and would likely look toward Trump to turn as many seats red as possible.

In regard to Trump running for president in 2024, Trump held meetings last week with "cabinet members" at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, according to Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff for Trump. Meadows made the statements on Friday night during an appearance on Newsmax's "Cortes & Pellegrino" show.

"We met with several of our cabinet members tonight," Meadows told Newsmax host and former Trump adviser Steve Cortes. "We actually had a follow-up member — meeting with some of our cabinet members, and as we were looking at that. We were looking at what does come next."

Meadows added, "I'm not authorized to speak on behalf of the president, but I can tell you this, Steve: We wouldn't be meeting tonight if we weren't making plans to move forward in a real way, with President Trump at the head of that ticket."

Mark Meadows shares intel from latest Trump meeting | Cortes & Pellegrino on Newsmaxwww.youtube.com