Trump boasts of over $1.5B in political funds. How he chooses to spend it could rock the midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has bragged about building a political war chest exceeding $1.5 billion — a staggering sum that he can wield at his whim to shape November’s midterms and the 2028 race to succeed him.

Trump's stockpile — which dwarfs any amounts raised by his predecessors in their second terms — is not easy to precisely calculate given that much of it is being collected by groups that aren’t required to file regular financial disclosures.

Current and former staffers, as well as others in Trump’s orbit, wouldn’t say exactly where his political bank account stands six months after the president announced on social media that he’d raised, just since Election Day 2024, “in various forms and political entities, in excess of 1.5 Billion Dollars.”

But what is not in question is that it represents a mountain of cash that could reshape Republican politics for years to come — if he chooses. He’s been reluctant to spend money on other people’s races in the past, and he’s even found ways to funnel some cash to his own businesses.

The $1.5 billion Trump claimed is roughly equal to what he and outside groups spent on his successful 2024 reelection bid, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending.

By comparison, Democratic President Joe Biden’s various super PACs, political groups and nonprofits, as well as the Democratic National Committee, raised roughly $97 million during his first year in office, according to public disclosures. That's only about 7% of Trump’s total, and Biden was gearing up for a reelection run Trump isn’t allowed to make.

“I think a lot of people are asking, ‘What is it all for?’” said Saurav Ghosh, federal campaign finance reform director at the Washington nonprofit Campaign Legal Center.

People close to Trump say the main benefit of all that cash is unmatched influence heading into November. They insist Trump is eager to help Republicans so his political agenda isn’t stymied, like when Democratic victories derailed his first-term agenda after 2018's midterms. His stockpile has helped the GOP build a sizable cash advantage over Democrats ahead of November, at least so far.

“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 and current director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program. “Certainly he’s been far more aggressive about this than any of his predecessors.”

Trump on Wednesday vowed political consequences for Republicans opposing his tariff policies, and could spend big to hurt them in GOP primaries. Chief among his targets is Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who opposed Trump’s tax and spend package and defied the White House in helping force the release of federal files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump has also endorsed a primary opponent of Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., after he voted to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial over the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Still, the extent to which Trump will open his pocketbook in congressional races remains to be seen.

“What I’m a little surprised about is that Trump has not leveraged — at least overtly — the money he controls going into that election on his congressional agenda,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist in Michigan.

Indeed, Trump has a history of not spending big on races where he isn’t running. In 2018, Trump’s America First Action super PAC spent less than $30 million — a pittance given that super PACs spent about $820 million that cycle, according to OpenSecrets.

He doesn’t always follow through on his threats, either. Despite pledging to travel to Alaska to help defeat Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2022, a Trump-affiliated PAC instead gave $1.5 million to a group opposing her. Murkowski was reelected anyway.

The president also has made no major moves so far to oppose state lawmakers in Indiana who refused to back new congressional maps championed by the White House.

Trump’s campaign bank account also would let him play a decisive role in the next presidential race. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are the early favorites, with Trump suggesting pairing them on a GOP ticket he says would be formidable.

Much of Trump's political cash comes from the MAGA Inc. super PAC, which raised $100-plus million in the last six months of 2025 and entered this year with more than $300 million. The Republican National Committee reported raising $172 million last year.

There's also a constellation of pro-Trump nonprofits, including Securing American Greatness, which are only required to release limited information about their finances. Donations to one Trump entity can be moved through the various nonprofits and super PACs, making it difficult to track what's spent where.

“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.

There are many ways Trump has used political funds to enrich his businesses in the past, including billing his campaign for the use of his own airplane. He could also stage political events at his properties in Florida or New Jersey, or his golf club outside Washington.

At least $26 million has been spent by conservative groups and Republican committees at Trump properties since 2015 — and the actual figure is likely higher since some groups don't have to offer detailed spending figures.

Though federal rules govern the ways political donations can be spent, they can also be skirted. In 2020, Trump's campaign paid tens of millions of dollars to limited liability companies controlled by aides, a move that satisfied federal disclosure rules, but masked the ultimate recipient of the money. In 2024, his political operation clawed back millions of dollars in donations it made to a super PAC supporting Trump's run and used the money to instead pay legal bills that mounted after his indictments in four federal criminal cases while also facing civil trials.

“As with so many things Donald Trump, he is sometimes pushing the envelope on what’s permitted, sometimes blowing right through what are pretty clear legal limits,” said Ghosh, of the Campaign Legal Center.

Trump’s fundraising efforts are tireless. The day after his 2024 election win, he ordered staff to begin fundraising anew, and he's since attended frequent fundraisers. His allies send out emails seeking donations constantly, often multiple times daily.

“I’m sitting here. Alone. In the war room. Fighting for you,” Trump wrote in one such message last month. In another, a Trump-affiliated group tried to spur on donors to give by asking, “Does ICE need to come and track you down?”

During his first presidential run, Trump relied heavily on small donations. But much of his operation now relies on large checks from uber-wealthy donors and well-connected businesses.

Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI, and his wife, Anna, donated $25 million to MAGA Inc. last year, as Trump talked constantly about helping ensure U.S. companies dominate the artificial intelligence field globally.

Other big donations came from crypto interests that have had federal investigations dropped and big tobacco companies hoping to ease regulations.

The parents of Howard Brodie, Trump’s ambassador to Finland, donated $500,000 to MAGA Inc., while Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million before her father, Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, was pardoned by Trump on bribery charges.

“Each of these wealthy individuals. corporations, they are ponying up for a purpose,” Ghosh said. “What we’re seeing with Trump’s administration is just an unprecedented level of pay-to-play.”

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Joint Base Andrews, Md. to West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington, before signing a spending bill that will end a partial shutdown of the federal government. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump rides in his limousine as he leaves the Trump International Golf Club, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

ROME (AP) — The Vatican warned a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group on Thursday that it risked going into schism if it goes ahead with plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent, setting a hard line against a big doctrinal challenge facing Pope Leo XIV.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, issued the warning during a meeting Thursday with the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the Vatican said. The meeting was scheduled after the Swiss-based society, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass but isn't in communion with Rome, announced plans to consecrate new bishops July 1 without papal consent.

Fernández offered a new round of theological talks to regularize the SSPX's status, but only if it calls off the planned ceremony.

Pagliarani, for his part, defended the new consecrations but said he would take the Vatican proposal to his counselors for a final decision, which is expected in a few days, the SSPX said in a statement.

The SSPX has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which among other things allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular.

The SSPX first broke with Rome in 1988, after its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing that it was necessary for the survival of the church’s tradition. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops, and the group today still has no legal status in the Catholic Church.

But in the decades since that original break with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with schools, seminaries and parishes around the world and branches of priests, nuns and lay Catholics who are attached to the pre-Vatican II traditional Latin Mass.

According to SSPX statistics, it counts two bishops, 733 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, a Catholic reality that poses a real threat to Rome because of the specter of the growth of a parallel church.

For the Vatican, papal consent for the consecration of bishops is a fundamental doctrine, guaranteeing the lineage of apostolic succession from the time of Christ’s original apostles. As a result, the consecration of bishops without papal consent is considered a grave threat to church unity and a cause of schism, since bishops can ordain new priests. Under church law, a consecration without papal consent incurs an automatic excommunication for the person who celebrates it and the purported new bishop.

Pagliarani has said in comments on the SSPX website, and in the SSPX statement, that the consecrations of new bishops are necessary for the society’s survival, because the remaining two are getting old and are increasingly unable to tend to the needs of SSPX members around the world.

During the talks Thursday at the Vatican, Fernández offered to open a theological dialogue with the SSPX to address concerns that they have outlined to the Vatican starting in 2017, especially concerning Catholic relations with other religions.

The aim, according to the Vatican statement, would be to identify the minimum points of agreement necessary to bring the SSPX back into communion with the Holy See and outline a legal status so it could exist within the church.

But it warned that such a dialogue would require the suspension of the planned bishop consecrations. Going ahead with them, the Vatican warned, “would imply a decisive break in the ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Fraternity.”

Pagliarani justified the ordination of new bishops as both “realistic and reasonable,” given the number of people who attend SSPX Masses.

The Vatican has tried for years to reconcile with the SSPX. Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops and relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass.

While offering some gestures to the SSPX, Francis reversed Benedict’s reform that allowed greater celebration of the old Latin Mass, arguing it had become a source of division in the church.

Catholic traditionalists say Francis’ crackdown had the result of pushing more faithful who were in communion with Rome into the arms of the breakaway SSPX, since they couldn’t find Latin Masses that were permitted by Rome.

Leo has acknowledged the tensions and sought to pacify the debate, expressing an openness to dialogue and allowing exceptions to Francis’ crackdown.

The Vatican, for example, said that Leo had explicitly approved Thursday’s encounter, which it described as “cordial and sincere.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV appears at his studio window to deliver the traditional Sunday blessing to faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the noon Angelus prayer, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Leo XIV reads his message during a weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)