"Trump is running out of other people's money to pay lawyers."

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Save America spent most of the $156.4 million it raised.

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Former President Donald Trump is running out of other people's money to spend on his legal bills, which could total in the tens of millions of dollars if he takes all four of his criminal cases to trial.

His key fund has spent nearly all of the more than $150 million it raised, and is sitting on less than $4 million, according to the latest numbers available. He’s already dug into his fund for 2024 ads, and borrowed money to post bail in Georgia. And some of his allies are begging for donations, saying he won’t pony up.

White collar criminal defense attorneys who spoke to USA TODAY estimated his legal bills will total millions, if not tens of millions, largely because he is defending against four criminal cases, but also because of his notoriety.

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Zachary Smith, who practices criminal defense about 40 miles from Atlanta, said Trump could spend $500,000 to $1.5 million on a local lawyer for his racketeering trial. He said the case could effectively shut down a small law firm for months while they take the case, and the firm would charge a premium based on Trump’s notoriety.

Danya Perry, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in New York, said a two- or three-week trial can easily cost $10 million. She highlighted the complexity and magnitude of the Fulton County case as particularly expensive.

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Trump’s main account that pays for legal fees, Save America, doesn’t have that kind of money. It’s spent almost all of the $154.6 million it raised since the 2020 election and had $3.7 million in the bank at the end of June.

The PAC spent it biggest chunk of money, $60 million, making transfers to Trump’s 2024 campaign super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc. But in May and June, as his legal entanglements grew, that super PAC refunded $12.3 million back to Save America. Without those transfers, Save America would’ve been in debt.

Save America has mostly been working with money it built up prior to Trump’s re-election declaration in November. Even though Trump’s campaign boasted raking in record amounts of money from his first two indictments in New York and Miami, records show that only $3.8 million of that went to Save America, while $33.1 million went to his presidential campaign.

During that same time period, Save America spent $21.6 million on legal expenses, the vast majority of the $38.4 million Save America has spent on that category since November 2020. And criminal defense lawyers haven’t been the only expenses for Save America.

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Make America Great Again, Inc. could transfer more money back to Save America; it ended June with $30.8 million. His official campaign account was sitting on another $22.5 million. However, transfers from either account would reduce his competitiveness in the Republican Primary.

The super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, running against Trump, ended June with $130.6 million, or about $100 million more than Make America Great Again, Inc.

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Trump’s personal wealth has been hard to pin down over the years, but Forbes most recently estimated it at $2.5 billion. Most of the wealth was in real estate, and $425 million was cash.

Udolf said if Trump is as rich as he says he is, he shouldn't have trouble paying from his own pockets.

“He says he’s a billionaire,” Udolf said of Trump. “If that’s the case, it’s certainly not going to be that much money.”

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