Trump’s Campaign Manager Has Raked in an Insane Amount of Money

One of Donald Trump’s campaign managers is cashing in big on the Republican nominee’s quest to retake the White House. Chris LaCivita’s firm has earned a staggering sum of $19.2 million in just the past two years

According to an investigation by The Daily Beast, LaCivita’s LLC pocketed $15.7 million in 2022 as he served as a “strategic consultant” for a Trump-aligned super PAC.* Since then, he’s continued to earn more through Trump’s 2024 campaign with the help of generous cuts on his campaign ads, and he will receive another  $150,000 bonus if Trump wins the election. On top of that, LaCivita has also received upfront payments for his services that have amounted up to $75,000 a month for “voter contact consulting,” according to multiple sources who spoke with the Beast.

Trump’s other co-campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is a volunteer. And on the other side of the ticket, Harris’s campaign manager is paid $13,442 a month, according to campaign finance records, a far more paltry sum in comparison.

Some of this look into Trump’s campaign finances was brought to light by an “audit” of the books led by  Trump campaign senior adviser Corey Lewandowski, who recently returned to Trump’s side. Lewandowski found that LaCivita’s consulting firm—which has no website and is headquartered in LaCivita’s home—had earned $3 million from the race and could collect another $5 million more by November. 

The Trump campaign and LaCivita pushed back against the Beast’s findings but did not offer the publication alternative numbers for the co-manager’s earnings.

“While the individuals responsible for attempting this kamikaze operation are known, their self-serving attempt to defame me will not distract us from continuing to deliver for President Trump and winning this election,” said LaCivita, taking a jab at Lewandowski.

“This entire story is fabricated nonsense, cooked up by talentless grifters who lack the integrity and skill to contribute to President Trump’s continued electoral success,” he said. “Every member of this team, myself included, has been fairly and responsibly compensated, with the priority of electing President Trump at the forefront of every strategic and financial decision we have made.”

Other Republicans have previously called out LaCivita for his grifting. Last year, an “opposition research” memo put forth by a super PAC backing Governor Ron DeSantis accused LaCivita of “cashing in on Trump” for “personal enrichment,” according to documents acquired by the Beast. They found that LaCivita pocketed $15.7 million and $4 million respectively from two of Trump’s super PACs during the 2022 midterms.

LaCivita’s take-home pay stands in even starker comparison when you consider that Trump’s campaign is struggling to match Kamala Harris in fundraising as the election nears. But don’t count on LaCivita to give up the hustle anytime soon.

* This article has been updated to reflect corrections made by The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump abruptly backed out of yet another prearranged interview, notifying CNBC that the network’s anticipated sit-down interview with the Republican presidential nominee, scheduled for later this week, would not be happening.

The schedule change was revealed by Squawk Box’s conservative-leaning host Joe Kernan, who specified on air Tuesday that “Trump canceled.”

Sources that spoke with The Daily Beast noted that the former president had initially accepted the invitation to speak on the business network. Three hosts anchor Squawk Box, one of whom is Andrew Ross Sorkin, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump since his initial 2016 campaign.

Instead, Trump has relegated his TV appearances to friendlier, more sycophantic networks, including Fox News, whose anchor Maria Bartiromo interviewed the former president over the weekend. Bartiromo did not interrupt or correct Trump when he claimed that the real Election Day threat is the “enemy from within” while suggesting that the military should forcibly involve itself in handling the election results.

“We have some very bad people,” Trump said on Sunday. “We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

But the sudden cancellation echoes Trump’s refusal to appear on 60 Minutes last week, defying a long-held preelection tradition, stretching back to 1968, in which both U.S. presidential nominees participate in sit-down interviews to discuss the finer details of their policy stances.

During its Monday night broadcast last week, CBS News’s Scott Pelley said that Trump backed out of his scheduled interview with 60 Minutes at the last minute on the basis that they “would fact-check the interview.”

“We fact-check every story,” Pelley said.

Meanwhile, Trump has ranted and raved about Vice President Kamala Harris’s media appearances, repeatedly accusing the Democratic presidential nominee of both doing too much and too little by way of press coverage, including actually following through on last week’s 60 Minutes interview.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson finally addressed accusations against him of wild impropriety Tuesday morning, weeks after a bombshell CNN report revealed that the MAGA politico had made a slew of disturbing comments on a pornographic messaging board prior to his foray into politics.

The brief, sparsely attended press conference featured just Robinson and his attorney, Jesse Binnall. The outlandish Republican announced his intention to sue the “left-wing” news outlet for defamation, seeking $50 million in damages for “reputational harm” over what he described as a “high-tech lynching.”

The CNN report, released in September, revealed Robinson had allegedly commented on websites about his desire to own slaves, peeping in womens’ locker rooms, and enjoying transgender porn. The outlet tied the account to Robinson via a “litany” of common biographical details and a shared email address. He also used his full name on his site account. The revelation saw a swift, mass exodus of Robinson’s campaign staffers after he refused multiple offers from I.T. specialists to help him investigate the origin of the comments.

In an attempt to wipe away the impact of the early October surprise, Robinson on Tuesday criticized the report’s publication as “one of the greatest examples of political interference in this state’s history and quite possibly this nation’s history.” Binnall, who worked for Donald Trump for several years and helped push the former president’s 2020 election conspiracy, argued that CNN had violated “journalistic standards” and “interfered with this election.”

The Republican gubernatorial nominee’s case will, of course, require evidence that the report had materially damaged his reputation, which was already considered pretty extreme due to Robinson’s openness about his other beliefs, including that he didn’t think schools would be getting “shot up” if they mandated instruction of the Bible in the classroom and that some people just “need killing!”

Robinson has also shared a host of his other disturbing positions online, including posts in which he minimized the horrors of the Holocaust, claimed a “satanic marxist” had made the movie Black Panther to pull “shekels” out of Black audiences, likened women getting abortions to murderers, and derided gay people as “filth” and “maggots.” Robinson has also expressed archaic views about women’s role in society, telling a Charlotte-area church in 2022 that Christians are “called to be led by men.”

But the dynamic duo of Robinson and his attorney had no smart response as to why the party had seemingly abandoned him in light of the latest slew of accusations.

“If your proof is so good, then why aren’t other Republicans standing with you? You’re by yourself,” one reporter asked.

“We stand with the voters—or, Governor Robinson stands with the voters of North Carolina,” Binnall said. “We’re going to go make our case in court. This case is for a jury.”

Donald Trump ended his town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, early Monday night and bizarrely made everyone watch him listen to music for nearly 40 minutes onstage.

Trump concluded the event after a few questions and a couple of medical emergencies in the crowd, despite telling his supporters that he would take more questions. Operatic music then started playing as Trump stood onstage, swaying and occasionally pretending to conduct the music.

The event bizarrely went on with Trump standing awkwardly onstage as “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” played. The crowd seemed to be either sitting and waiting for something else, or they began to sway like they were at a concert. Trump then said he wanted to take more questions but changed his mind and asked for “YMCA” to be played, “nice and loud,” to wrap up the event.

But strangely, the event didn’t end there. Trump continued to stay onstage as what seemed to be his campaign playlist kept playing, running through songs like “Hallelujah,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Rich Men North of Richmond,” and “November Rain.” Then finally, he gave South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem a kiss and stepped offstage.

It’s the latest, and strangest, example of Trump showing clear signs of mental decline, even as he insists otherwise. Just over a week ago at a rally, he struggled to pronounce words like “Midwestern” and “evangelicals,” and compared himself to a fly. His speech patterns and alertness seem to have gotten worse, with cognitive experts seeing compelling evidence that he is much less alert now.

While the media is finally starting to give the issue attention, it remains to be seen if Monday’s bizarre rally will be framed correctly. The Republican presidential nominee is not well, but so far, news coverage seems to ignore all of the clear warning signs.

In the swing state of Georgia, a judge has ruled that election officials cannot refuse to certify election results.

In the groundbreaking ruling on Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney stated that “certifying election results … is mandatory.”

“No election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”

Obviously, the judge noted, county election officials have the duty to “investigate concerns about miscounts.”  But otherwise, election officials have a duty to certify the results no later than 5 p.m. on the Monday following the election.

The ruling aims to put a stop to any unnecessary delay or holdup thanks to election deniers. Fulton County was the epicenter of Donald Trump’s 2020 scheme to overturn the election. 

McBurney’s ruling came after Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, challenged her duty to certify election results. Legal challenges like this one have played an important role in the GOP’s “election integrity” efforts going into November, as election deniers are filing lawsuits across the country to change election procedures.

“If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so—because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud—refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” wrote the judge.

Earlier this year, Fulton County was given an independent election monitor in response to the issues that arose during the 2020 presidential election. At least 19 county election officials, most Republican, have voted not to certify election results since then, according to an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trump has actively cheered on these officials.

This ruling has thrown a wrench in efforts to suppress election results in the state in November. Another similar ruling is still pending in a separate case filed by state and national Democrats.