$382 Million in the Bank - Trump Won't Say Whether He'll Spend It - And How Conservative Is Too Conservative?

Donald Trump redrew the map of the United States Senate before a single vote had been cast. Republican incumbents he considered insufficiently loyal were pushed aside. In their place, he installed men who would stand by him. Now, four months before the November election, one uncomfortable question hangs over the man who set all of this in motion: Will he pay for the choices he made?

MAGA Inc., the largest political war chest in the country, held $382 million last month. It is money Trump collected even though the Constitution bars him from seeking another term. Shortly after winning his second election, he began raising funds, hosting events at his private properties where a single seat cost $1 million. The money is there. What is missing is an answer about where it will go. That silence continues even as Senate Republican leaders have pressed Trump's team, both privately and publicly, to cover the cost of the President's political decisions.

Texas has become the center of the battle. There, Trump used his influence to replace incumbent Senator John Cornyn with hardline conservative Ken Paxton. Some Republicans privately complain that what should have been a safe Republican seat has now become a competitive race, one that could drain money away from other battlegrounds. Democratic candidate James Talarico, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, has made Paxton's history of corruption allegations the centerpiece of his campaign. Cornyn, whom Trump forced aside, told Semafor with the calmness of a man who no longer has anything to lose: The President picked Paxton, and he has $350 million. He can spend his money.

It is a remark that goes beyond political sarcasm. It speaks to an old truth about power, one that is rarely expressed so openly. The person who makes the choice owns the consequences. Trump made his choice without being asked, and now others are expected to pay the price while he sits on his fortune and says nothing.

Ein zweites Problem ist in North Carolina entstanden. Dort verzichtete Senator Thom Tillis auf eine erneute Kandidatur, nachdem er sich im vergangenen Jahr mit Trump über Ausgaben im Gesundheitswesen überworfen hatte. An seiner Stelle stützte Trump Michael Whatley, den er zuvor selbst zum Vorsitzenden des Republikanischen Nationalkomitees gemacht hatte. Die Demokraten hoffen, den Sitz mit dem früheren Gouverneur Roy Cooper zu gewinnen. In einem Bundesstaat mit mehreren teuren Medienmärkten rechnen manche in der republikanischen Wahlkampfführung damit, dass MAGA Inc. für Whatley einspringt. Rechnen ist hier das richtige Wort. Denn versprochen hat niemand etwas.

A second problem has emerged in North Carolina. Senator Thom Tillis decided not to seek reelection after clashing with Trump last year over healthcare spending. Trump then threw his support behind Michael Whatley, whom he had previously appointed chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats hope to capture the seat with former Governor Roy Cooper. In a state with several expensive media markets, some Republican campaign strategists expect MAGA Inc. to step in and finance Whatley's campaign. "Expect" is the key word. No one has actually promised anything.

Republicans can certainly count on generous support from the official party committees. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that those committees may contribute unlimited amounts of money directly to candidates' campaigns. Even so, those sums pale beside the fortune Trump has accumulated inside MAGA Inc. As a Super PAC, the organization may raise unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations. It is prohibited, however, from coordinating directly with individual campaigns or national party committees, and that restriction has placed a curtain over its plans. No one outside the organization knows what is being prepared, and no one inside is allowed to tell the candidates.

More than two months have now passed since Blair met with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, pollster Tony Fabrizio, and senior political adviser Chris LaCivita at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington to map out MAGA Inc.'s midterm strategy. The meeting focused on assembling campaign infrastructure, advertising firms, door to door field operations, executives from digital media companies, and the consultants who had worked with Trump's team in key battleground states during previous elections, all ready to be deployed once the strategy was finalized. Two months later, those plans still appear to be waiting.

The President has spent much of this year pursuing a campaign of retribution against Republicans who defied him. He considered Cornyn insufficiently loyal. He never forgave Bill Cassidy of Louisiana for voting to convict him during his impeachment trial. He mocked Thomas Massie of Kentucky as the worst Republican member of Congress in history. All of them lost their primaries to candidates Trump endorsed. The campaign was successful. It was also expensive, and the bill has yet to be paid.

Cornyn's defeat weighs heavily on Senate Republicans, who suggest that Paxton alone could cost the party an additional $100 million simply to hold the Texas seat. The Senate Leadership Fund, the principal Super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, will continue buying advertising in Texas but will not play the leading role because its resources are already committed elsewhere. The organization has already pledged $342 million for four key battleground states - Alaska, Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio - as well as Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, and New Hampshire. Democrats need to gain four Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and they view those first four states as offering their strongest opportunities.

When Paxton arrived in Washington after winning the Republican primary on May 26, he held what participants described as a cordial meeting with Thune focused on moving forward together. That account came from people familiar with the conversation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Later that same day, Thune made it clear that Trump should help finance a candidate Senate Republicans had never asked him to nominate. We will do whatever is necessary to keep Texas red, Thune told reporters. But I am certainly hopeful that the President, and the resources he is capable of raising, will become involved. It is going to be an expensive race.

Everything comes down to that final remark. Trump got exactly the candidates he wanted. He reshaped the Republican Party in his own image, removed those who challenged him, and elevated those who remained loyal. What he has not yet done is demonstrate that this political project is worth spending his own money on. There is a form of power that consists of making everyone else pay for your decisions. Whether Trump wants to be anything more than that will become clear over the next four months. The money is sitting in the bank. The only question is whether the account will ever open for anyone besides Donald Trump himself.