Donald Trump will soon be getting the backup he needs to take on Joe Biden this November, and it’s coming from the man who brought superheroes to the big screen.
A new super PAC has been launched to provide the former president with some much-needed cash as he sails to the Republican nomination.
According to The New York Times, the group’s strategy has yet to be made public, and it is not clear when it will begin airing ads.
The group, Right for America, is being supported by Ike Perlmutter, the billionaire former chief executive of Marvel Entertainment, and will be led by a Trump ally, Sergio Gor, according to two people briefed on the matter.
One of them is Lee Rizzuto, whom Mr. Trump nominated as the U.S. envoy to Barbados and several Caribbean islands but who saw his chances sink over past social-media posts pushing conspiracy theories about some senators. He ultimately became Mr. Trump’s appointee to lead the U.S. consulate in Bermuda. The other board member, Anthony Lomangino, is a Mar-a-Lago member who ran a waste management company. He donated money to a legal-defense fund during the Trump presidency to help people ensnared in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump and his campaign conspired with Russians.
Wealthy donors often want some level of control over how their money is spent since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC paved the way for super PACs in 2010. But the existence of the pro-Trump group has already created friction within Mr. Trump’s broader orbit. The main super PAC supporting him, Make America Great Again Inc., has been aggressive for months, including in attacking Mr. Trump’s rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, last year.
The new group comes just in time for the president, who has been struggling to raise funds for his campaign amidst accusations that he’s using them to pay his legal bills instead of defeating Joe Biden. The Washington Post reported, “Donald Trump and the Republican Party find themselves facing an early cash gap heading into the 2024 election — and are furiously trying to fix it.
At the end of January, President Biden’s campaign had $56 million in cash, compared to $30.5 million for Trump. The Democratic National Committee, which is functioning as a part of Biden’s campaign, had $24 million in the bank — almost triple the $8.7 million held by the Republican National Committee.
A Washington Post analysis of filings by Biden’s campaign and joint fundraising committees found that they had 172,000 unique donors in November of 2023, pulling ahead of Trump’s 143,000 donors for the first monthly win of the year. Despite the fact that Trump was actively campaigning for the Republican nomination, Biden maintained an advantage in December.”
Right For America’s leader, Sergio Gor first became famous during the 2016 campaign while working for Senator Rand Paul, when, according to Buzzfeed, “he wanted to obtain an eagle for Paul to appear with before the debate.
Staffers were dispatched to try to find the eagle to rent, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the incident. One estimated that several people spent half a day on the task. Eventually a falcon was located, but by that point the scheme had leaked out to other staffers, who quashed it.”
“We spent like half a day on this ridiculous project that I’m not even sure was approved by the higher-ups,” a staffer. told the news outlet. After that, other staffers nicknamed Gor “Condor.”
Gor joined Trump’s re-election team in the summer of 2020 and has been a close aide ever since.
Don’t expect the former president to head to a falconry anytime soon, however. Super PACs are barred from directly engaging with the candidates they support.
