Even in defeat, President Trump continued to raise money at some of the fastest rates of the year, pulling in $207.5 million in the month since Election Day along with the Republican Party as he made baseless claims of voter fraud to undermine the legitimacy of the election.
Mr. Trump’s campaign apparatus has continued to aggressively solicit donations under the guise of supporting his various legal challenges to the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., but as of now 75 percent of donations goes to a new political action committee that Mr. Trump formed in mid-November, up to the PAC’s legal limit of $5,000. The other 25 percent goes to the Republican National Committee. Only if a donor gives more than $6,000 do any funds go to Mr. Trump’s formal “recount” account.
His campaign did not release a breakdown of how the $207.5 million was divided. The funds are split among the new PAC, called Save America, the R.N.C. and two committees operated jointly by the party and the campaign, with some money also going toward paying off Mr. Trump’s campaign debts.
“These tremendous fund-raising numbers show President Trump remains the leader and source of energy for the Republican Party,” Bill Stepien, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
Mr. Trump, who has not formally conceded the 2020 race but has begun talking about running again in 2024, has repeatedly challenged the presidential results in court with virtually no success.
In his statement, Mr. Stepien added that the money “also positions President Trump to continue leading the fight to clean up our corrupt elections process in so many areas around the country, and to build on gains from the 2020 elections so we can take back the House and build on our Senate majority in 2022.”
Mr. Trump’s next political steps are much discussed in both parties, and his nonstop fund-raising in the month after his loss at the polls ensures his new political operation — whatever shape it takes — will continue to be well-financed. He can use the new PAC to hire staff members and pay for political travel, like his rally on Saturday in Georgia, where two runoff elections on Jan. 5 will determine control of the United States Senate.
Some of Mr. Trump’s fund-raising solicitations have veered from simply disputing the results of November’s election. His campaign, for instance, offered donors who gave $45 on Thursday an “iconic” Christmas ornament (it features a photo of Mr. Trump, in a red hat, and the words “We’re saying Merry Christmas again!”).
The announcement that he had raised $207.5 million in one month came on a final filing deadline of the 2020 race with the Federal Election Commission, which covers the period from Oct. 15 to Nov. 23. During that period, the R.N.C., Mr. Trump’s campaign and their shared committees raised a combined $495 million, campaign officials announced.
As of early evening, only the R.N.C. had filed its report, which showed it ended the period with $58.8 million cash on hand — a large sum for a party at the end of a campaign. As Mr. Trump has contested the results in multiple locations, the party had spent more than $6 million on legal bills, with $1.4 million going to the Jones Day law firm, $1.3 million to King & Spalding and more than $920,000 to Consovoy McCarthy.
The party’s biggest expense was $42.4 million to a limited liability company, Digital Consulting Group, with a limited public footprint. The party has made its third payment of $666,666 to Reuters News & Media Inc. for “legal proceedings” related to intellectual property, for a total of $2 million that the party and company have previously declined to discuss.
The filings also showed that the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, spent nearly $210 million on the 2020 election, with $90 million going to a pro-Trump super PAC, $70 million to a Senate G.O.P. super PAC and $40 million to a House Republican super PAC, plus millions more to various committees.
