Trump’s super PAC received a large injection of “dark money” in late October from a group whose leader the president-elect has since named as one of his deputy chiefs of staff.
According to a recently posted FEC filing covering the final stretch of the campaign, a group called Securing American Greatness (SAG) gave $62 million toward the end of October to Trump’s super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA Inc.). The West Palm Beach-based SAG, which does not disclose its donors, gave MAGA Inc. $52.6 million on Oct. 22, and an affiliated super PAC that is wholly funded by the group gave an additional $9.4 million on Oct. 18.
SAG is run by veteran Trump campaign aide Taylor Budowich, who also founded the MAGA Inc. super PAC before leaving it in August to join the Trump campaign.
On Nov. 13, Trump announced he was hiring Budowich as deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Trump’s announcement of the Budowich hire came alongside his naming of senior White House positions for Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, and James Blair.
“Dan, Stephen, James, and Taylor were ‘best in class’ advisors on my winning campaign, and I know they will honorably serve the American people in the White House,” Trump said in a statement. “They will continue to work hard to Make America Great Again in their respective new roles.”
MAGA Inc. had just $31 million in cash on hand as of Oct. 16, so the money from SAG, which made up the vast majority of what it raised during the period covered by the post-general report, provided critical support to help it keep up pro-Trump media spending during the closing weeks of the campaign.
From Oct. 18 through Election Day, MAGA Inc. spent more than $99 million on TV ads, text messages, and billboards to promote Trump and oppose VP Kamala Harris. The super PAC’s TV spots during the campaign homestretch hammered Harris with images of migration at the southern border and rising prices for households.
MAGA Inc. was the top spender on Trump’s behalf this election cycle, helping the Republican nominee make up a campaign fundraising deficit with Harris’ campaign.
By SAG making its contributions after the last pre-election disclosure deadline, the funding remained hidden from the public until after Election Day. SAG’s donations were a huge step up in dark money for the group and for pro-Trump PACs more broadly: Sludge calculated that pro-Trump super PACs had received about $23.2 million in dark money as of Oct. 23, only a slice of the nearly $200 million in dark money backing Harris’ super PACs. Most pro-Trump megadonors, in other words, seemed content to make public their largesse for much of the campaign.
MAGA Inc. also received a late boost from a new Trump megadonor—an Australian billionaire cardboard magnate and Mar-a-Lago fixture—as well as from millions of dollars worth of stock given by Trump’s Commerce secretary pick Howard Lutnick, and a top-off donation from Big Tobacco.
