Thanks
to his weak competition in the Republican primary, Trump did not have to spend
much to get an advantage over rival campaigns and Super PACs, but in the
general election it is unlikely that Trump can get by simply based on tweets
and bombast as he did with Bush, Cruz, and Rubio.
On Monday night Trump filed his finance report with the Federal
Election Commission (FEC) and the failure of his campaign to bring in money is
nothing less than amazing.
In May of 2016, Trump only raised $3.1
million from contributors and loaned his campaign an additional $2.2 million.
At the end of the month the campaign only had a shocking $1.3 million dollars
in cash on hand.
As journalists quickly pointed out, Trump’s fundraising more likely resembled a House member with “a semi-competitive seat” or “a safe Senate seat in a deep red state.” The numbers are definitely not the sort of figures associated with a national presidential campaign.
The results look even worse compared to Hillary Clinton. At the
end of May, her campaign had $42
million on hand, an amazing disparity of $40 million between the two campaigns.
And while donors have said they are still unable to determine
which Super PAC to donate to in order to support Trump, the Super PAC backing
Clinton, Priorities USA, had its biggest
month ever with $12 million in donations.
Even compared to fellow Republicans, Trump’s numbers are
pathetic. In May of 2012, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and the
Republican Party raised $78
million dollars. The current GOP only raised $12 million this May.
Defunct campaigns like Ben Carson’s currently have $7.4 million
on hand, more than Trump’s active campaign.
Is This Another Trump Scam?
There are also some weird expenditures from the Trump campaign
found in the FEC reports. He appears to be redirecting some money back towards
himself.
His campaign paid $423,371
for the use of Trump’s own
house the Mar-A-Lago mansion
and club in Florida.
Even stranger, Trump seems to be drawing a salary from his campaign, a very unusual arrangement especially
for someone claiming to be a “billionaire.” The filings find that Trump is
regularly being paid $2,574 as part of “payroll” for the campaign.
Author Oliver
Willis was one of the
first political bloggers in the world (since 2000), and was among the first
bloggers to interview President Obama at the White House. I am on Twitter @owillis and write at OliverWillis.com