In the past, Donald Trump has wanted the American public to cover him for his legal bills. Now a new report says he’s doing that by taking the money for his legal expenditures from his 2024 presidential campaign.

New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher published a story on Sunday about Trump’s online fundraising, reporting a change they noticed on his website. The change pertains to how much donated funding goes to Trump’s campaign, and how much goes to the political action committee Trump is using to cover his legal costs.

From the Times:

When Mr. Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign in November, for every dollar raised online, 99 cents went to his campaign, and a penny went to Save America.

But internet archival records show that sometime in February or March, he adjusted that split. Now his campaign’s share has been reduced to 90 percent of donations, and 10 percent goes to Save America.

And the existence of the group has allowed Mr. Trump to have his small donors pay for his legal expenses, rather than paying for them himself.

The Times report indicates that the arrangement allows Trump to skirt around the rules declaring that PACs can’t spend money directly on a candidate’s campaign, and a campaign committee can’t directly pay for things for Trump’s personal benefit. The report also says that in the course of the past year, Save America’s coffers were down by over $100 million as it covered Trump and his allies over the course of their legal battles. This was before Trump’s indictments this year, both of which, he has attempted to fundraise off of.

“In February 2022, the PAC announced that it had $122 million in its coffers. By the beginning of 2023, the PAC’s cash on hand was down to $18 million, filings show,” the report says. “The rest had been spent on staff salaries, on the costs of Mr. Trump’s political activities last year — including some spending on other candidates and groups — and in other ways. That included the $60 million that was transferred to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that is supporting Mr. Trump. And more than $16 million went to pay legal bills. Mr. Trump’s rivals are not similarly splitting their online proceeds with an affiliated PAC.”

The report goes on to examine how Trump’s campaign seems to be trying to save money, judging by his attendance at events held by others, plus his lack of large political rallies.

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