MAGA Inc. rarely spends in battleground states as Trump grows war chest

Trump historically unpopular amid low marks on economy, Iran war

The political organization MAGA Inc. paid for Vice President JD Vance’s Monday campaign rally in Michigan — a rare instance of spending by the group in a battleground state this year, according to The Associated Press. AP described the event as “a rare bit of spending in a battleground state from a powerful political organization that has mostly been missing in action this year.”

The Vance rally punctuates a broader pattern in which President Donald Trump has been accumulating campaign funds rather than deploying them. “With just over two months to go before the midterm elections, President Donald Trump is still sitting on most of his colossal war chest, and he’s been growing his money pile instead of spending it,” AP reported from Las Vegas.

Trump and his team have publicly signaled that the posture will change before Election Day. “Even though the president and his team insist they’ll open their wallet soon, frustrations are growing as Republicans try to maintain control of Congress,” AP wrote.

The frustrations reflect political pressures that AP said stem in part from Trump’s own standing with voters. AP described the situation as one in which “Republicans try to maintain control of Congress despite headwinds partially of Trump’s own creation.”

Those headwinds, in AP’s account, include the president’s weak standing on two signature issues. AP reported that Trump remains “the party’s best asset in turning out its base” but is also “historically unpopular, with low marks on his handling of the economy and the ongoing war in Iran that most Americans say was not worth fighting.”

Most Americans, AP reported, consider the Iran war not worth fighting — a position that has compounded the political difficulty for Republicans trying to maintain their congressional majorities. AP also said Trump had low marks on his handling of the economy, and described his standing within the Republican coalition as two-sided: he remains “the party’s best asset in turning out its base” even as he is “historically unpopular.” Voters head to the polls in November.

The Vance rally was an exception to a year in which MAGA Inc., which AP described as a “powerful political organization,” has been largely on the sidelines in the races most likely to decide control of Congress. AP’s characterization of the Michigan stop as a “rare bit of spending in a battleground state” sets the appearance apart from the pattern of the year.

The AP report was filed from Las Vegas under the byline of Thomas Beaumont.