"He just thinks he operates in his own world," Fred Wertheimer, a veteran of decades of fights over campaign finance and government ethics, told HuffPost. "What he's doing is incredibly brazen in both asking for large amounts of money and telling people what he's going to do for them in return."

"Bottom line, I've never seen anyone do what he's doing," Wertheimer said.

"He has and always will be a con man who's really only looking out for himself and whatever helps him to obtain power," said Tiffany Mueller, the president of the Democratic campaign finance group End Citizens United. "All his promises went out the window. Instead of draining the swamp, he brought the swamp to him and his properties and cashed in."

Elon Musk and other wealthy conservatives are funding America PAC, which is focused on turning out GOP voters in swing states. Trump's official super PAC, MAGA, Inc. is airing attack ads targeting Harris with more than $100 million from Timothy Mellon, a somewhat reclusive banking heir with far-right politics. And Miriam Adelson, the widow of gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, is pouring tens of millions into Preserve America, another super PAC targeting Harris with attack ads.

[I]n public, Harris has not been nearly as obsequious to large donors, save for a decision to trim back a Biden proposal to increase taxes on capital gains. Donors, for instance, have openly pushed for Harris to fire Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan if she's elected president. But Democrats close to Harris have suggested such a push has only made it less likely that Harris will oust Khan, a progressive who has chilled mergers and acquisitions with an aggressive approach to antitrust.