Donald Trump’s oil baron lovefest wins over a Nikki Haley supporter and his cash

How does one draw a line between Donald Trump and higher gas prices?

The answer: through a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation — and a former Nikki Haley donor.

Donald Trump’s third bid for the White House has been punctuated with a sense of desperation which never seemed to appear in his two previous runs for president. Beset by four criminal prosecutions and a number of civil trials, the former president is running for a second term under the shadow of serious legal consequences for his bid to overturn the 2020 election, his alleged hoarding of classified documents, and his hush money scheme to hide an affair with a porn star.

With those various judicial proceedings comes a staggering financial cost, already surpassing $100 million.

That drain on his finances — which he has offset with donations to his Save America PAC — is one motivating factor for pursuing the presidency. The second is the unique nature of the office, which, thanks to Justice Department guidelines on prosecuting a sitting president, would provide Trump with another layer of security as he fights off his prosecutions.

Even with Joe Biden trailing in the polls and now suffering a self-dealt body blow after last Thursday’s debate, Trump and his allies recognize a need to step up their fundraising game as the general election approaches. The Republican National Committee (RNC), now led by Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, is seeking to win back the Senate while building on a tenuous lead in the House of Representatives, in addition to winning back the White House.

The result of this pandering for votes and money: increasingly brazen efforts to win both big-money backers and non-Republican voters. The Independent has reported previously on how