President Donald Trump is setting aside a portion of his $400 million political war chest to cover his family’s legal bills — his 20-year-old son, Barron, included — in case Democrats capture Congress in the Nov. 3, 2026, midterm elections, according to a Daily Mail report.
Some of the hundreds of millions raised by his MAGA Inc. super PAC is being reserved for potential legal defense costs should Democrats retake the House and possibly the Senate, the report said. The preparations extend across the family, including First Lady Melania Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, over the president’s remaining two years in office.
Trump, 80, has long accepted that Democrats will likely open impeachment hearings if they win back the Capitol. He was impeached twice during his first term and acquitted by the Senate both times. He is said to be angry, though not surprised, by the threats aimed at his relatives, and he and his allies have been readying the family for two years of investigations.
Barron in the Democrats’ Sights
In July 2025, Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., called on Barron to testify before Congress about his relationship with Andrew Tate, a manosphere figure suspected of rape and sex trafficking. Barron was reported to admire Tate and to have spoken with him by phone while being fitted for a suit. Ansari told MeidasTouch that the president’s youngest son is an adult with real influence inside his father’s orbit. “So he needs to be held accountable if he has committed any wrongdoing,” she said.
An earlier effort to put Barron under oath went nowhere in the Republican-controlled House. He is no bystander to the family’s business, though: he holds a founding role in World Liberty Financial, the Trump cryptocurrency venture, alongside his half-brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
A Long List of Potential Targets
Participants in deals brokered by Trump family members, along with corporate donors to the president’s ballroom, are expected to be among the first targets if Democrats take either chamber. Control of the House or Senate would hand them subpoena power and funding for investigative staff, making probes possible as early as February 2027. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Sept. 17: “We’re going to hold the crooks accountable, beginning on day one.”
The president’s personal wealth grew by an estimated $2.2 billion over two years of family dealmaking in crypto, drones, artificial intelligence and prediction markets. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have singled out Trump-linked crypto firms and Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, though both cautioned there is no definitive list of targets yet. Raskin says Kushner has not answered two letters about Affinity Partners’ dealings with Middle East governments and oil monarchies while he also represents the United States in diplomatic negotiations. The private equity firm received a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman six months after Kushner left office in January 2021.
Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding, heavily funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin, is another thread — and one that drew a call for an investigation from freshman Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is focused on a proposed sale of a portion of Yosemite National Park to a private developer with ties to Republican campaign committees. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., released a report saying oil and gas companies won tax breaks, subsidies and looser environmental rules after Trump asked the industry for $1 billion in donations during his 2024 campaign.
In March, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and other Democrats wrote to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy, asking whether the $75 million documentary about Melania Trump was a losing bet at the box office, a bribe, or part of a pay-to-play arrangement with the administration. Even Kai Trump, the president’s 19-year-old granddaughter, could draw scrutiny after she used White House grounds to promote her eponymous clothing line.
The White House Digs In
A White House official told the Daily Mail that Democrats have nothing to run on and go after the president, his Cabinet and his relatives rather than offering solutions for voters, calling the approach embarrassing. Spokeswoman Lauren Bis denounced the investigations Democrats have aimed at Trump over the past decade. Spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement that Democrats have no agenda to improve Americans’ lives and only plans to obstruct and target the president’s program.
Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer, said he expects Democrats to pursue every person in Trump’s orbit, his relatives most of all, and predicted the strategy will cost the party politically.
Companies tied to Trump and his family are not waiting. They are hiring lawyers to run internal audits and retaining crisis communications firms for public outreach. Ashley Callen, a lawyer at Jenner & Block and a former general counsel to House Speaker Mike Johnson, said Democrats will not be patient, will expect documents quickly and will not tolerate stalling.
Republicans have already faulted Trump for not spending more of the $400 million to boost GOP candidates in the midterms. Under the plan described in the report, part of that money is being held in reserve for lawyers instead.
