Trump has been raising money from his supporters by claiming the money will help fund the legal fight to prevent Joe Biden from "stealing the election," or whatever, but as you know Trump's doomed legal campaign is a joke without a punchline.
No one has presented a single piece of credible evidence of widespread voter fraud on behalf of the Trump campaign, but most of the money he's raising isn't actually being used to fund the legal campaign.
The fine print of Trump's fundraising blitz reveals that the money is actually being used to cover Trump's campaign debt and may even flow directly to him.
From the Associated Press:
But the fine print indicates much of the money donated to support that effort since Election Day has instead paid down campaign debt, replenished the Republican National Committee and, more recently, helped get Save America, a new political action committee Trump founded, off the ground. [...]
“This is a slush fund. That’s the bottom line,” said Paul S. Ryan, a longtime campaign finance attorney with the good government group Common Cause. “Trump may just continue to string out this meritless litigation in order to fleece his own supporters of their money and use it in the coming years to pad his own lifestyle while teasing a 2024 candidacy.”
The first few days after the election, money that was purportedly for the legal fight primarily went to Trump’s campaign for debt payment, as well as the RNC, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. But on Monday, Trump launched Save America, his new PAC, which is now poised to get the largest share in many cases.
Save America is a type of campaign committee that is often referred to as a “leadership PAC,” which has higher contribution limits — $5,000 per year — and faces fewer restrictions on how the money is spent. Unlike candidate campaign accounts, leadership PACs can also be tapped to pay for personal expenses.
Based on the Associated Press timeline, we can infer that within the first three days after the election, Trump shifted to raising money for covering his campaign's debt. And within six days, he shifted to raising money for his time outside the White House. His ongoing legal campaign is just a cover to raise money for his life as a private citizen. He doesn't want to concede because he needs the money he's raising by pretending the election isn't over.
The Trump crime family is in a very deep financial hole. The bills are going to come due and he won't be able to use the presidency to prop up his crumbling businesses once he's out of office.
He's trading one grift for another.