Trump’s Super PAC raised just $40 in August despite offering supporters branded trinkets

Former president Donald Trump’s super PAC raised only $40 in the month of August, in a sign that his name doesn’t have the fundraising pull it once did.

Along with the low August numbers, the Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC only raised $351,000 in July and nothing in June. By comparison, in the final fundraising quarter of last year, the super PAC raised $4m to $5m.

Even in April and May, it raised $864,000. Among some of the merchandise Mr Trump’s political action committees is selling are his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s memoir of his time working in the Trump White House, Trump wine glasses, a rally speech signed by the former president and the opportunity have their name engraved on the “donor wall”.

The numbers come as Save America political action committee foots the bill for Mr Trump’s legal fees. Last month, it spent $3.8m on legal fees, the most it had spent on such fees for a month the entire 2022 campaign cycle, with $3m going to Critton, Luttier & Coleman, a law firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Most recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250m lawsuit against Mr Trump, the Trump Organization and his three adult children for “engaging in years of financial fraud”. In addition, Mr Trump faces ongoing questions about the storage of presidential documents after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.

Mr Trump’s fundraising network features seven political action committees, which altogether have $122m on hand. Despite this, he has spent little on supporting candidates for the 2022 midterm elections as Republicans hope to win back the House and Senate.

On Friday, the former president will campaign in North Carolina for Representative Ted Budd, his preferred Senate candidate for the state.