Trump campaign gets off to modest start in 2022

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Trump campaign gets off to modest start in 2022

The New York State Attorney General provided a picture from the video, former President Donald Trump listens during an Aug 10, 2022 deposition in New York. Trump's fundraising for his presidential bid gets off to a modest start. PHOTO AP WASHINGTON Donald Trump's bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 got off to a modest fundraising start, with his campaign ending the year with $7 million on hand while his Save America fund had about $18 million, according to financial disclosures released on Tuesday.

After launching his third consecutive run for the White House on November 15, a week after a weaker than anticipated Republican performance in midterm congressional elections, the former US President did little campaigning, and didn't hit the trail until this Saturday.

Tuesday's filings with the Federal Election Commission indicate that Trump's fundraising was sluggish, leaving him with a far smaller war chest than the more than $100 million Save America had on hand through early 2022.

After leaving office in January 2021 he held regular rallies in which he repeated his false claims that his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud.

The Save America group that served as his main fundraising arm was registered to fund other campaigns, not Trump's own. That poses legal problems if Trump wants to use Save America funds in his campaign.

Save America transferred $60 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC group last year, which is expected to support his presidential run. The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, has asked the election regulators to investigate Save America's money transfers.

Save America revealed on Tuesday that the group spent more than $3 million on lawyer fees in the final weeks of 2022, according to Save America's financial disclosure on Tuesday.

Trump is the most popular figure in the Republican party and is the only major candidate to declare his intention to challenge Biden, who has not yet launched his own re-election campaign. But Trump could face challengers for the nomination, notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

He also faces a series of legal risks, including a possible investigation into hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

On Saturday, Trump visited two early-voting states and held notably muted events. In the past, Trump spoke to about 200 people in South Carolina's capitol building, in contrast to the raucous rallies in front of thousands of devotees.

The campaign committee of Trump raised $3.8 million between Nov 15 and December 31, ending the year with $3 million in the bank, according to a disclosure to the election regulators.

READ MORE: After Trump tax revelations, the US House passes bill to boost oversight.

A Trump fundraising group called the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee raised more than 3.8 million dollars in the bank at the end of the year, so most of the money was raised through that group.