Trump Might Already Be Breaking Campaign Finance Laws

**Get $5 off Magic Spoon's Ketofriendly cereal! Follow the link and use code ROF at checkout!

Donald Trump announced this past weekend that he has already made his decision about whether or not he is running in 2024, but he refuses to say what that decision is. Campaign finance experts now say that this statement could get the former President in all kinds of trouble, especially if that answer is yes, he is running. There are all kinds of rules for candidates who are deciding to run, but no matter what the ultimate decision, they would have to report any spending to the FEC, which Trump has not yet done. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains the possibilities.

Become a member today!

Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!

Find our merchandise at Teespring

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel

Be sociable! Follow us on:

Follow more of our stories at

Subscribe to our podcast

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Donald Trump announced this past weekend in an interview with Fox news host, Maria Bartiromo, that he has in fact made up his mind about whether or not he's running for president in 2024, but he said, I'm not going to tell you right now. I know my decision. I know what I'm doing. I know if I am or am not running. But I'm not going to tell anybody yet. And when he admitted that he has made up his mind that sent up a whole bunch of red flags to campaign finance experts who are now saying in interviews with the Daily Beast, that, yeah, that likely means that he might already be violating campaign finance laws. Here's what's happening and pay close attention, because this is a very complicated issue. Once you are running for office, let's say running for president in this particular instance, you're running for president. As soon as you make that announcement campaign finance limits kick in.

Okay. What is it, $2,400 for individuals, you know, the, the corporate limit, whatever that is, 58, no, $5,800 is small donors. I'm sorry. But anyway, those limits kick in. You can't raise more than that from a single individual once you're officially a candidate. But the FEC does have a little provision that allows somebody to essentially go out and do what they call test the waters, which means you haven't made up your mind yet. The campaign limits are a little bit looser. They're still there and you still have to report, but they're a little bit looser. But that's only if you have not made the decision. You cannot test the waters indefinitely. Okay. You can't go out there and test the waters for two years, for example, and then suddenly say, ah, you know what, I've decided I'm going to run. Yeah. You can't do that. And you certainly can't be testing the waters and not filing the campaign reports. See that's where Trump may get himself in trouble.

Is he keeping track of all this? Are they raising money for a presidential campaign or are they just raising money for a, you know, Trump PAC, essentially. That would be one thing that would be acceptable. Another issue Trump may have is that he is working closely with a dark money group at the moment, if he is officially a candidate, if he has made up his mind to be a candidate, that kind of coordination would no longer be allowed. There is a lot of weird and convoluted things in campaign finance laws here in the United States and one of the most odd bits of it is the fact that something like this, even if Trump did, if he was found to be violating campaign finance laws right now, he wouldn't be prosecuted. That's the most ridiculous part of all of this. You have all these rules in place, you know, they're in depth, you've got the spending limits. Everything is spelled out in clear black and white, but in recent history over the last few years, every candidate who has been found to be violating these hasn't been prosecuted.

Nothing happened to them. You get a warning like, hey, by the way you broke the law. Try not to do it again. Kid Rock is a great example. When he was testing the waters on a Senate run violated these same laws we're talking about right now.