Trump Uses His Campaign PACs As His Personal ‘Piggy Bank’ to Pay Personal Legal Expenses

Jul 26, 2026 02:01 PM EDT, Sun

President Donald Trump’s political committees have spent more than $100 million on legal bills since the 2020 election.

Jul. 18, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT By Soorin Kim

Two political action committees affiliated with President Donald Trump paid nearly $8 million in legal bills over the first six months of this year, paying law firms that have been defending him in personal and political court fights that have trailed him through 18 months of his second term.

Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC also reported about $5 million still owed to law firms, according to their latest disclosure filings.

Since Trump’s return to the White House last year, several of his high-profile court battles have slowed down and so has his political committees’ legal spending, but many of the cases have not gone away completely, still costing the president millions in legal bills. This week, $5.6 million in damages and interest paid by Trump was transferred to writer E. Jean Carrol, three years after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing her in 1996 and later defaming her on social media.

Also this week, a federal judge lambasted Trump’s settlement with the IRS as the product of collusive, backroom dealings. And Trump is still appealing his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

According to the latest campaign finance disclosures, the biggest chunk of Trump-affiliated PACs’ legal bills in the first half of this year went to Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, a law firm that has represented Trump in his appeal of the hush money case. The firm, which has also reportedly been engaged to handle Trump’s ongoing appeal of Carrol’s $83.3 million verdict over additional defamation claims, has been paid at least $2.3 million by Save America PAC, disclosures show.

Two other firms that have been involved in the E. Jean Carrol cases — Habba Madaio & Associates LLP and the James Otis Law Group — were paid $198,500 and $92,800, respectively, so far this year, according to the filings.

Brito PLLC and Epstein & Co., which represent Trump in the IRS lawsuit, have been paid $324,000 by Save America PAC and are owed another $180,000. The committee also paid roughly $295,000 to Weber, Crabb & Wein P.A., which represents Trump in his lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Make America Great Again PAC, formerly Trump’s 2024 campaign committee, paid $1.5 million to Campbell Killin Brittan & Ray, which is defending Trump and the former presidential campaign against a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The PAC owes the firm an additional $924,600, its filing shows. MAGA PAC has also been paying hefty sums to firms defending him and his former campaign in various election-related legal battles.

MS NOW has reached out to Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC for comment.

For both Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC, which raise money primarily from small-dollar online donors, legal expenses have been their single-largest cost over the past year. Save America PAC, created after the 2020 election, has been the main vehicle for those bills, paying more than $100 million in legal fees since.

Soorin Kim is a White House producer with MS NOW.

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