Donald Trump is sitting on a war chest exceeding $1.5 billion—a sum so massive it dwarfs anything any previous president has amassed in their second term—and he’s made clear he’ll use it to reward allies and crush Republicans who cross him.
The stockpile, which Trump bragged about on social media, is roughly equal to what he and outside groups spent on his entire 2024 reelection campaign. For comparison, Joe Biden’s various political groups and the DNC raised about $97 million during his first year in office. That’s 7% of Trump’s haul—and Biden was actually allowed to run again.
“One of the main reasons a lame-duck president might want to amass this much money is to maintain political relevance,” said Daniel Weiner, a former Federal Election Commission attorney. “Certainly he’s been far more aggressive about this than any of his predecessors.”
Trump has already started naming targets. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who opposed Trump’s tax package and helped force the release of Jeffrey Epstein files, is in his crosshairs. So is Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial. Trump has endorsed Cassidy’s primary opponent.
The money flows through a maze of super PACs and nonprofits that make tracking it nearly impossible. MAGA Inc. alone raised over $100 million in the last six months of 2025 and entered this year with more than $300 million. Pro-Trump nonprofits like Securing American Greatness are only required to release limited financial information.
“Because there are virtually no restrictions on what super PAC money can be used for, it essentially can be operated as a slush fund at the disposal of whoever controls it,” Weiner said.
And Trump has a long history of finding ways to funnel political cash back to himself. His campaign has billed for use of his own airplane. Conservative groups and Republican committees have spent at least $26 million at Trump properties since 2015. In 2020, his campaign paid tens of millions to LLCs controlled by aides—technically legal, but designed to hide where the money actually went.
The donor list reads like a who’s who of industries seeking favors. OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife gave $25 million as Trump talked up AI dominance. Crypto interests that had federal investigations dropped chipped in. Big tobacco companies hoping to ease regulations opened their wallets.
The parents of Trump’s ambassador to Finland donated $500,000. Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million before her father, a Venezuelan banker, was pardoned by Trump on bribery charges.
“Each of these wealthy individuals, corporations, they are ponying up for a purpose,” said Saurav Ghosh of the Campaign Legal Center. “What we’re seeing with Trump’s administration is just an unprecedented level of pay-to-play.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee raised $7.4 million through small dollar-donations last month.