“There’s nothing we can do to stop them,” said Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for America First, the one super PAC authorized by Trump. “This is a problem for the campaign, as well as us, as well as for the RNC.”

Overall, $46.7 million flowed into close to 20 Trump booster organizations, structured as PACs or political nonprofits and with names like Latinos for the President and MAGA Coalition, between January 2017 and the end of June 2019, according to the most recent data available. The overwhelming majority of the money comes from donors giving $200 or less.

“There’s nothing we can do to stop them." Kelly Sadler, spokesperson for America First.

Additionally, 265 Facebook pages spent more than $4 million on Trump-related advertising in the past year and a half, but they are not registered political committees, according to advertising disclosures from the social media company. There are no public records of how much money these groups raised off their advertising, but the millions spent give some indication of the size of the lucrative online market selling pro-Trump merchandise — which, of course, the Trump campaign also sells.

The Trump campaign has made public statements and sent letters to the Federal Election Commission calling for all outside groups except America First to cease operations.

And in a statement to POLITICO, the Trump campaign urged federal authorities to probe potentially illegal behavior.

“President Trump’s campaign condemns any organization that deceptively uses the President’s name, likeness, trademarks, or branding and confuses voters,” the Trump campaign said. “There is no excuse for any group, including ones run by people who claim to be part of our ‘coalition,’ to suggest they directly support President Trump’s reelection or any other candidates. We encourage the appropriate authorities to investigate all alleged scam groups for potential illegal activities.”

But the statements have made little impact. While they have helped drive wealthy donors to the White House’s preferred groups, Sadler said, grassroots Republican donors are still being picked off by the pirate pro-Trump groups.

“It’s taking advantage of people who want to give [money], and a vast majority of this money doesn’t go to the campaigns. It doesn’t go to the cause,” said GOP operative Matt Gorman, who worked for Mitt Romney's and Jeb Bush’s presidential campaigns.

The money trail

Great America PAC, which bills itself as Trump’s “strongest and most active independent ally,” raised $11.1 million from 2017 to mid-2019, and it has reported spending $4.5 million on ads supporting Trump and his allies since the president’s election, according to the FEC.

But Great America PAC has no actual affiliation with the Trump campaign, as a disclaimer at the bottom of its website notes. And the group pays large sums to its main employees and their businesses, FEC and IRS documents show.

Great America PAC's affiliated nonprofit, called Great America Alliance, paid $2.7 million to consultants in 2017 and 2018, according to tax forms filed with the IRS, accounting for nearly half the group's total operating expenses. In 2017 alone, $955,382 went to Frontline Strategies, a public affairs and government relations firm registered in California by Great America PAC co-chairman Eric Beach, for “management services,” according to the tax filings. It is unclear whether Great America PAC's leader, Ed Rollins, received payments from the nonprofit, but the PAC’s FEC reports show it paid Rollins $330,000 since the start of 2017.

And a review raises questions about the $4.5 million in TV ad spending Great America PAC claimed in filings with the FEC and in public statements over the past 2½ years.

Advertising Analytics, a TV ad-tracking firm, said the data it has collected shows only $359,901 in TV spending by Great America PAC between January 2017 and December 2019.

In an interview, Beach said the discrepancy was because Great America PAC buys almost all of its ads "through providers such as DirectTV, DISH, Comcast, OANN" and not through cable and broadcast advertising.

Advertising Analytics said its data collected for POLITICO would include Comcast cable ad purchases and would most likely incorporate ads for satellite and DISH networks, but some information could be missing because of how the advertising is purchased.

Great America PAC “generally avoids inefficient, expensive national media buys in favor of direct buys, smaller providers, last minute and even pre-emptable media,” the group’s lawyer, Dan Backer, wrote in an email. “It’s not done to be reported, it’s done to be effective.”