As Donald Trump rushes to start collecting the $1 billion expected to be necessary to compete for the White House, one of his biggest challenges may come from those claiming to support him.

An increasing number of unauthorized groups are invoking the presumptive GOP nominee’s name to raise money, suggesting that they’ll use the cash to support his campaign, even as some appear to be spending most of their money on contracts with favored consultants.


Trump’s campaign and its allies worry that the groups are doing little to help the campaign and may be doing more harm than good by siphoning off cash that would otherwise go to the campaign’s fledgling fundraising effort. The campaign has disavowed several of the groups, demanding they stop using the candidate’s name in fundraising appeals and calling at least one super PAC founded by a Trump adviser a “big-league scam.” But appeals keep coming from other groups, with more now joining the scrum, and rival groups accusing one another of being scams.

Legal changes and technological developments have paved the way for an explosion of political nonprofit groups, including super PACs, which have rushed to raise money with very little oversight of how they spend it, leading to charges and countercharges of profiteering.

While conservative operatives in recent years have worried that a surge in so-called “scam PACs” has become a scourge on their efforts, the threat they pose to Trump is especially acute. The billionaire real estate showman mostly self-funded his primary campaign, boasting that — unlike his competitors — he wasn’t dependent on donors, and mostly eschewing efforts to create a fundraising operation. His supporters, many of whom are new to political giving and neither well-versed in election law nor attuned to the fine print of political solicitations, may be uniquely susceptible to fundraising appeals from unauthorized groups run by operatives with spotty reputations.

More than two dozen unauthorized groups have formed claiming to support Trump, and they’ve raised a total of $3.7 million this cycle, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. But only six of the groups have actually bought ads supporting Trump.

The sheer number of groups raising money using Trump’s name can make it difficult even for savvy donors to determine which groups are legit and could freeze potential big givers.

The Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a leading GOP megadonor who last week officially endorsed Trump, intends to spend heavily to help elect him, but his advisers are skeptical of the crop of the pro-Trump PACs, according to an operative familiar with their thinking.

“They’re not comfortable with a lot of the options out there supporting Trump,” said the operative. “They’re going to be very careful.”

The Trump campaign hasn’t done itself any favors by neglecting some basic steps that could help marginalize poseurs and imitators. For example, the campaign hasn’t bought Google ads for the candidate’s name directing searchers to his official campaign website.

Thus it can be hard for online contributors to distinguish among the groups touting support for Trump. An outfit called Restore American Freedom and Liberty has blasted out emails trumpeting the latest polls showing Trump tying Hillary Clinton, ending with a big red CONTRIBUTE button. According to its campaign finance disclosures, the group has raised more than $215,000 but spent just $2,000 on ads — split between Ted Cruz and Ben Carson. Most of the money went to a New York company called Amagi Strategies, for what the disclosures said was fundraising, management and research.

Amagi Strategies is also the main beneficiary of other unauthorized PACs. The group’s treasurer, Denver lawyer Alexander Hornaday, and Amagi CEO Tyler Whitney didn’t answer requests for comment.

There’s an emerging rivalry between two super PACs jockeying to position themselves as the legitimate unlimited-money vehicles for Trump, as Priorities USA Action is for Hillary Clinton and Right to Rise was for Jeb Bush. But both have to differentiate themselves from fringe groups and win donors’ confidence.

The newer one, called the Committed for American Sovereignty, is run by Doug Watts, who used to work on the Ben Carson campaign. Watts said the group would focus on major donors instead of online contributions and will commit to spending 85 cents of every dollar on contacting voters.

“Some of these groups in a bald-faced way go out and rape and pillage and are more than disingenuous with the people that they’re soliciting for funds, otherwise known as scam PACs,“ Watts said. “Trump people are particularly vulnerable in that they’ve been sitting on their hands.”

Watts brushed off as irrelevant the fact that the group’s California chairman, former state Sen. Tony Strickland, faces a fine for allegedly disguising campaign contributions.

The super PAC that has so far spent the most money to help Trump is the Great America PAC, led by Eric Beach, who worked for Rand Paul’s presidential campaign, and former Ronald Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins.

In another sign that donors have trouble distinguishing among the groups, the Great America PAC received more than 600 donations intended for the Trump campaign itself, and forwarded them to the campaign.

The PAC has spent more than $1 million so far on pro-Trump ads but raised eyebrows with a TV spot that looked unprofessional and asked supporters to call a toll-free number to donate. One of its strategists, Jesse Benton, was convicted this month of buying an endorsement for Ron Paul in 2012. And Amy Kremer, a tea party activist who was an early leader of the group, quit this month over a disagreement with Beach.

“There's been a great advantage for us in that Trump wasn’t actively soliciting funds, and because of that we were able to capture the Trump supporters who were very enthusiastic,” Beach said. “Of course there’s going to be scammers, but we feel we’re the sole outside organization that’s been around and that is the most credible.”

The PAC’s treasurer is Dan Backer, whose consulting firm, DB Capitol Strategies, has been paid more than $2,000. Backer is also the treasurer of PACs such as Conservative Action Fund and Tea Party Forward that have spent more on their own operating expenses than on their stated causes.

Backer said that’s a misinterpretation based on how FEC reports are organized. As for Great America PAC, he said it’s “probably the best most effective steward of donor funds. This PAC does stuff, whereas nobody else does.”

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone has warned donors to “beware” of Great America PAC, branding it a “scam.”

Stone has his own super PAC, the Committee to Restore America’s Greatness, which Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, blasted as a “big-league scam.”

Separately, Stone says he also raised $40,000 to organize a protest, called “Stop the Steal,” against the “all-out bid to deprive Donald Trump of victory” at a contested convention in Cleveland. Now that Trump’s rivals have cleared the field, Stone told POLITICO, “every penny will be spent on what is now an AMERICA FIRST-UNITY RALLY.”

The effort’s website says contributions will not be used in connection with federal elections. But nominating conventions qualify as elections under federal law, according to Paul Ryan, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center. The group would have to register with the Federal Election Commission and file disclosure reports. “I’ve never before seen anything like this,” Ryan said.

Stop the Steal shares a Santa Ana, California, address with Stone’s super PAC, the Committee to Restore America's Greatness. FEC reports show the group has raised $341,000. It’s unclearwhether if any of the expenses benefited Trump’s candidacy.

The first super PAC supporting Trump, Colorado-based Republican operative Mike Ciletti’s Make America Great Again PAC, shut down last fall after the candidate disavowed it. It raised $1.7 million but hasn’t made any apparent pro-Trump expenditures.