In his third State of the Union address, President Joe Biden on Thursday evening railed against so-called dark money.

Biden, before a joint session of Congress, urged lawmakers to pass legislation that Democrats say would make it easier to vote in elections. Almost 60 years after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the president barked, Republicans are intent on voter suppression, election subversion, gerrymandering, and, notably, supporting “unlimited dark money.”

That last part could place Biden in a tough spot. His 2020 election was the culmination of Democratic Party-allied nonprofit organizations that don’t disclose their donors spending more than $1.5 billion to prop up his agenda, the New York Times reported. Now, as Biden underperforms in polls against his forthcoming repeat opponent in 2024, former President Donald Trump, dark money is a critical weapon the octogenarian’s allies are wielding with the hope of securing him a second term, financial disclosures show.

“We continue to see Democrats benefit substantially from dark money,” said Anna Massoglia, editor and investigations manager for the OpenSecrets campaign finance watchdog. “We also, of course, see a lot of posturing to some extent within Congress by the same Democrats who benefit from dark money in elections.”

Biden’s campaign did not return a request for comment. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner, “Crooked Joe Biden is a walking and talking hypocrite. He is propped up by shady, liberal dark money because he has failed as president and is now losing badly in every single poll.”

Armed with a $41 million advantage, Biden and the Democratic National Committee reportedly aim to “bury” Trump and the Republican National Committee with massive spending. The former president’s legal bills in connection to various cases have reached $540 million since last year. A proposed RNC resolution that would have prohibited it from paying those bills recently failed, though Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, who will help lead the RNC after the installation of Trump allies at the organization on Friday, has repeatedly said RNC money would not be used for Trump’s legal troubles.

But the real financial effort to boost Biden in 2024 will be at the super PAC level. These committees are allowed to raise unlimited sums and spend endlessly supporting or opposing candidates through independent expenditures, or advertisements. And the pro-Biden Future Forward super PAC certainly is ambitious.

Future Forward, which is led by Democratic operative Chauncey McLean, in late January launched a $250 million ad blitz in seven states to support Biden — the largest single political ad purchase by a super PAC in the history of the United States. Future Forward has received a staggering $86 million since 2018 from its affiliated 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit group, which is under no obligation to disclose its donors to the IRS, according to documents on file with the Federal Election Commission.

The ad blitz is also $100 million more than what America First Action, the leading super PAC supporting Trump in 2020, spent in the prior presidential election, filings show.

In 2022, nearly all of the $60 million Future Forward’s nonprofit organization raised originated from 26 donors, according to tax forms. The Open Society Policy Center, a lobbying shop funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, shuffled $15 million to Future Forward. The Hopewell Fund, which is part of the sprawling left-wing Arabella Advisors dark money network, wired $1.5 million to Future Forward.

Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm formed in 2005, manages the Hopewell Fund and other nonprofit groups sponsoring projects that aren’t required to file tax forms with the IRS. Washington, D.C.’s attorney general’s office is investigating the firm and its offshoots over financial mismanagement allegations.

Meanwhile, American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC founded by Democratic operative David Brock, plans to spend $200 million supporting Biden in 2024. The super PAC is, in part, bankrolled by an affiliated 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization arm that pulled in $20.7 million in 2022.

Since 2017, the Sixteen Thirty Fund dark money group under Arabella Advisors has directed $4.5 million to that nonprofit group, tax forms show. Checks have also been cut to it from Arabella’s New Venture Fund, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Environmental Defense Action Fund, National Education Association of the United States, and other grantmakers.

“President Biden and his team have fully embraced hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money to boost his reelection,” Caitlin Sutherland, who leads the conservative Americans for Public Trust watchdog group, told the Washington Examiner.

Biden’s State of the Union remarks about dark money are hardly the first time the president has lambasted anonymous donations in the political system.

“Let’s remember: Getting dark money out of our politics has been a bipartisan issue in the past,” Biden said in 2022 while supporting Democratic-led legislation seeking to force super PACs and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations spending money on ads to report the identities of donors giving them more than $10,000 in an election cycle. “Ultimately, this comes down to public trust.”

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Biden has made it clear what he thinks is wreaking havoc on that trust.

“Dark money erodes public trust,” he said in 2022. “We need to protect public trust. And I’m determined to do that.”