Trump's $850 Million Midterm War Chest Still Mostly Unspent With Early Voting Weeks Away

Since Trump first told reporters on August 21 that his political operation held about $850 million and that he'd spend "a lot of that money" on Republican candidates, the actual spending has not followed. Election Day is less than 60 days out.

According to CBS News, MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, had roughly $401 million in cash on hand as of July 31 per FEC filings. Trump says there's another $450 million sitting in a nonprofit arm that can run issue ads but can't directly back candidates. Add it up and you get his $850 million figure.

The spending so far doesn't match the talk. CBS News and the Daily Wire both report MAGA Inc.'s only significant outlay this cycle was $827,711 for get-out-the-vote calls and texts backing a candidate in South Carolina's Senate GOP runoff. Before that push, the Daily Wire reports MAGA Inc. had spent only about $18,000 on 2026 midterm races all year, after spending roughly $1.7 million total in 2025.

MS NOW reports MAGA Inc. reached an arrangement this week with Elon Musk's America PAC dividing up two Senate races: Musk's group takes Texas, backing Attorney General Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico, while MAGA Inc. takes North Carolina for Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair. Neither PAC has gone on the air in either state yet, according to MS NOW's sources.

Trump's own explanation

Trump has offered a rationale, not just silence. At a White House Rose Garden dinner, according to the Daily Signal, he said he plans to spend the final 30-plus days before the election focused on 35 battleground races, personally traveling to each one and possibly holding up to 10 remote town halls a night. He named Sen. John Thune, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan as leaders he's doing this for, and said he's relying on Speaker Mike Johnson's team to tell him where to spend.

The strategy has a straightforward logic: hold fire until turnout attention peaks after Labor Day, then flood the most competitive races when it matters most, rather than lock in ad rates months early. A MAGA Inc. official told MS NOW the group intends to play in these races "soon" and has been coordinating with the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund, the House and Senate GOP's own super PACs.

But Republicans are running out of patience

A GOP source working on the midterm effort told MS NOW the party would be "stunned" if MAGA Inc. spent less than $200 million total, a fraction of what's on hand, and complained: "We're three weeks away from mail voting in some states, it's crazy. They've created such high expectations thumping their chest."

The Washington Post, via Yahoo News, reports something more pointed: a person with knowledge of internal conversations says some around Trump believe he has little interest in spending the bulk of the money on this year's races at all. Theories floated internally, per that reporting, range from protecting his political influence heading into the next presidential race to funding legal fees, post-presidency travel and his Miami presidential library, projected to cost at least $1 billion. Some donors, the Post reports, have started holding back new contributions while the existing pile sits unspent.

Those are unproven theories from an anonymous source, not established fact, and Trump has not confirmed any of them. The only nationwide ad MAGA Inc.'s allied nonprofit, Securing American Greatness, has run so far promotes Trump himself, not candidates, according to CBS News.

Meanwhile Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended Paxton's slow start to ABC News, arguing Paxton's three-month runoff against ousted Sen. John Cornyn ate up time and money Talarico didn't have to spend fighting his own party. The Senate GOP's national fundraising arms have continued withholding money from Paxton specifically after Trump pushed Cornyn out, the Daily Wire reported.

The politics of the pause

On MS NOW's "The Moment," analyst Alex Wagner called Trump's inaction "sabotage," tying it to tariff-driven food prices and citing a 32% approval figure for the president. That approval number and the sabotage framing are Wagner's own characterization, not an independently sourced poll finding in these reports, and should be read as commentary.

A Financial Times/Focaldata survey cited by Türkiye Today found 53% of registered voters say their finances have worsened under Trump, including 57% of independents and nearly a quarter of Republicans, with two-thirds saying the economy is headed the wrong direction.

Republicans gather in Dallas next week, September 9 and 10, for what's being billed as a presidential-style midterm convention, complete with a balloon drop. CBS News reports some vulnerable House members, including Florida Rep. Maria Salazar, are skipping it to campaign in their own districts instead. The unresolved question heading into that convention: whether Trump uses the stage to finally commit real numbers to specific races, or whether the $850 million question follows Republicans all the way to November.