Senator Ted Cruz has openly admonished his fellow RepublicanDonald Trump for not spending more of his war chest on GOP candidates in the upcoming midterms.
The Texas senator called out the one-term president during Tuesday’s episode of his podcast The Verdict, claiming that he is sitting on “a hundred million dollars” instead of using it to support pro-Trump candidates on ballots across the country.
“I wish Trump was spending some of his money,” he said.
“Trump’s got a hundred million dollars and he’s spending almost none of it to support these candidates.
Mr Cruz highlighted that this was not an “ideal” situation as one of the other main resources for funding GOP races in the midterms – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – has been backing moderates and anti-Trump Republican candidates.
“It would be nice if [Mr] Trump would spend some of that $100m to help some of these candidates who Mitch [McConnell] is abandoning because they’re pro-Trump,” quipped Mr Cruz.
“Those are the two pockets that are there and right now neither of them are spending in a number of these states.”
The “hundred million dollars” appears to be a reference to Mr Trump’s war chest, which he bragged had reached $122m at the start of this year.
In February, the former president announced that his political action committees (PACs) had fundraised more than $51m in the second half of 2021 – though the former real estate mogul has not disclosed what portion of his stockpile came from transferred money raised in the final weeks of 2020.
Fundraising for the former president, who has yet to formally announce a 2024 bid for the White House, places him in a uniquely favourable position when and if he decides to run for re-election.
However, Mr Trump’s biggest PAC has considerably slowed its fundraising in recent months – in a sign that his ongoing legal troubles may be taking a toll on his efforts to rally support.
The Make America Great Again, Again! super Pac raked in just $40 in August, after bringing in $351,000 in July and zero in June, according to recent election filings, the Financial Times reported.
By contrast, the group had pulled in more than double that amount in the months of April and May combined.
The figures pale in comparison to the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, when the super pac raised between $4m and $5m.
