Axios reports that Trump’s all-out “spamming” of the GOP donor base has other GOP candidates increasingly angry and the party’s future in jeopardy. Trump doesn’t seem satisfied to just be a kingmaker. In a development that Republicans should have seen coming years ago, the GOP establishment is learning that Trump believes he should receive and control the money, all of it. Every GOP pol now knows that once Trump controls cash, it rarely – if ever, leaves his orbit.
Read the biggest developments from Michael Cohen's testimony.
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The fact that Trump has turned his politics into a profitable business venture is now increasing tensions within the GOP:
Trump is raking in donations. His political vehicles, led by the group Save America, raised more than $51 million during the second half of 2021. They also ended the year with more than $122 million in the bank, according to FEC reports. Trump’s small-dollar fundraising operation is the vanguard, driven by ceaseless emails and text messages hitting up his supporters for cash.
Any of us who inexplicably found ourselves on one of Trump’s lists can attest to the “ceaseless” demand for money, always needed “now, more than ever before, hit “Triple” and receive…. ”
But it is drying up the reservoir that keeps the rest of the party watered, putting its future harvest at risk. Candidates that – by necessity – had to rely upon Trump’s endorsement, must now come to him in order to raise money or use Trump’s name in their own plea for money which gets lost in amongst Trump’s spam. Inevitably, the resentments build and fractures deepen:
Trump’s approach is spurring other campaigns to lean heavily on his brand in their own fundraising appeals. That keeps Trump essential not just to the Republican political brand but to its ability to raise money online.
These complaints are frequently discussed privately in GOP fundraising circles. Nobody of stature wants to talk publicly, for fear of retribution — because Trump remains the most powerful man in Republican politics.
All complaints about Trump are discussed privately except the pushback emanating from names big enough and secure enough in their position that they can afford to bring it out in the open. This article doesn’t conflict with the many reports we’ve published on McConnell’s open war with Trump, nor even DeSantis’s agenda.
But whether behind closed doors or playing out on Fox News, it is easy to see how Trump’s obsessive need to obtain and control every dollar could dry up and destroy the party as a whole. No one feels sorry for the small fish swimming alongside Trump, but everyone can relate to the fury he causes.
@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact with any concerns.
