Billionaires to help finance Trump campaign

Conservative billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein will help fund Donald Trump’s campaign, giving the former president financial support as he seeks to catch a fundraising lead built by President Joe Biden, the Financial Times said on Saturday.

The Uihleins, who founded the Uline shipping and packaging company from their basement in 1980, had donated to the Republican primary campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the race in January.

News of the couple’s decision came after the former president won 14 out of 15 states in the Super Tuesday primaries and his last Republican rival, Nikki Haley, quit the race, the FT said. Her exit all but assured that Trump will be the party’s nominee and face off again against Biden, a Democrat.

Trump has fallen behind Biden in fundraising ahead of the Nov 5 general election. Trump’s cash holdings dropped to just over $30 million at the end of January, down from around $33 million a month earlier, his campaign told the Federal Election Commission.

Biden, facing a less competitive process for his Democratic Party’s nomination, told the FEC his campaign ended January with about $56m in cash, up from $46m in December.

Trump’s legal expenses have grown to hundreds of millions of dollars as he grapples with 91 criminal counts across four cases. On Friday, he posted a $91.6 million bond to cover the defamation verdict in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll.

The Uihleins had each given $1.5mn to DeSantis and Liz Uihlein told the FT she would give a similar amount to Trump.