Feb. 25, 2025, 6:26 p.m.
President Trump’s campaign is once again soliciting donations from supporters and stockpiling cash, even though he won’t be on the ballot in 2026.
As the Republican Party approaches its third midterm cycle with Trump—who doesn’t face another race or any major legal cases—as its de facto leader, the president has fewer reasons to hold onto his campaign money this time around.
“He’s not somebody who tends to spend much on other people,” veteran GOP presidential strategist Liz Mair told National Journal.
Trump wasn’t on the ballot in the 2018 midterms, but his 2020 presidential campaign was up and running, prompting some downballot candidates to complain that he was monopolizing small-dollar donations. In the 2022 midterms, Republicans found themselves in a similar situation, with the president stockpiling cash for his inbound legal cases.
“I would love to see him in the midterms in a way he didn’t in ‘18 and ‘22—meaning spending, advertisements, stuff like that,” GOP digital strategist Mike Hahn, an alum of Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, told National Journal.
Ever since announcing his first presidential run nearly a decade ago, Trump has built a small-dollar fundraising behemoth. Despite his fundraising chops, he’s been reticent to part with the money in past midterm campaigns: He eventually spent $23 million in 2018, and he seeded a super PAC just a month before the 2022 midterms that spent $18.7 million before the election, but this represented a relative drop in the ocean in terms of his haul that year. Entering 2025, his campaign sits on millions in the bank.
With Trump off the ballot again, the GOP has good reason to compel him to release the purse strings in 2026: The party hasn’t had a strong midterm performance since 2014. The GOP lost 40 seats in the 2018 House elections—its heaviest setback since the post-Watergate election in 1974—and in 2022, the party lost a seat in the Senate and barely regained the lower chamber, resulting in internecine chaos.
With the House GOP’s majority slimmer than ever and some vulnerable GOP senators up for reelection, Republicans will want to avoid a repeat next year.
“My understanding is that the president has two commitments,” GOP consultant John Brabender, who worked for Trump’s 2024 campaign, told National Journal. “One is finding extremely high-quality candidates who support his agenda and recruit them, and No. 2, to make sure that they have at their disposal all the tools and funding that they would need to be successful on Election Day.”
Crucial to Trump’s fundraising is his email list. The president still solicits donations to maintain it, with the funds going to a joint fundraising committee that comprises the Republican National Committee and Never Surrender Inc., a leadership PAC created out of the commander in chief’s 2024 campaign committee.
“It is amazing how quickly lists go to sh-t, if they’re not kept active [or] if they’re not kept engaged,” Mair said. “You want your list to be valuable.”
These committees are already flush with cash, per Federal Election Commission filings. The joint fundraising committee itself started the year with $20.7 million on hand. The RNC had $38.1 million, which has increased to $45.2 million since the end of last month. Never Surrender had $27.4 million on hand as of New Year’s Day, albeit with $11.3 million in debts attached.
Should Trump disburse these funds, it’s unclear whether he will use them exclusively for general elections or whether they will extend to primaries.
If there’s incumbents that are going to fight his agenda, I think that they will find that they probably will have potential opponents. ”
— GOP consultant John Brabender
He was heavily involved in the 2022 primaries, effectively anointing the GOP nominees—including now-Vice President J.D. Vance for the Senate race in Ohio—with a simple endorsement. His involvement helped him to remove eight of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him. Financial backing, though, didn’t come with the verbal support.
With disagreements emerging within the House Republican conference over the path forward for Trump’s agenda, it’s possible that he may have knives out for incumbents again this cycle.
“He’s very committed to making sure that he has people who are committed to his agenda,” Brabender said. “If there’s incumbents that are going to fight his agenda, I think that they will find that they probably will have potential opponents.”
In open primaries, Trump has already gotten started. In a pair of Florida special elections, the president backed state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and state Rep. Randy Fine in the 1st and 4th districts, respectively, before they had even officially announced their runs. He hasn’t given them any money, per filings.
“[Trump] endorsing in primaries is a good thing because it ends these primaries so that folks don't have to spend a ton of money and leave it damaged,” Hahn said. Expensive primaries in Arizona and Ohio in 2022 showed that there are limits to what Trump can achieve in this regard.
Brabender said Trump may reserve some of his cash for ousting Democrats in purple states or districts who have sought to stall the president’s agenda. He cited Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, arguing that he “got a free ride” in 2022 when he dispatched Trump-backed state Sen. Doug Mastriano by 15 points. Shapiro sued the Trump administration earlier this month over its federal funding freeze.
Trump’s interests could also extend beyond 2026 and to the next presidential race. He put Vance at the front of the succession line as soon as he selected him as his running mate in July. When asked during his Super Bowl interview whether he’d endorse Vance for president in 2028, the former Apprentice star punted the proverbial football.
“No, but he is very capable,” Trump said. “I think you have a lot of very capable people.”
Trump’s email list and astonishing popularity within the GOP—his approval rating among Republicans stood at 88 percent in a recent CNN poll—give him unprecedented influence over the party. He’ll likely play kingmaker when the next presidential primary kicks off, assuming he doesn’t challenge the 22nd Amendment to run for a third term, as he’s repeatedly teased.
Not since 1988 has a Republican president had the chance to anoint a successor—President George W. Bush, the last GOP leader to complete two terms, was too unpopular at the end of his tenure to have a say. President Reagan declined to get involved in the 1988 primary, only backing President George H.W. Bush after he became the presumptive nominee. Mair saus Trump might follow a similar track, opting for a battle royale between GOP candidates rather than a coronation.
“[Trump] likes the tumult,” she said. “He likes the chaos.”
