The signs have been there for months. The fireworks at Mount Rushmore. Using the White House to hold the RNC convention. All the Hatch Act violations. And now, not rushing to release August’s fundraising numbers.
It’s no longer a secret. The Trump campaign is having financial difficulties.
“Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated,” The New York Times reports. “Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election.”
In 2015, before becoming the Republican nominee, Trump promised supporters he would self-fund his campaign. That turned out to be a lie.
“I mean, do I want to sell a couple of buildings and self-fund? I don’t know that I want to do that necessarily, but I really won’t be asking for money for myself, I’ll be asking money for the party,” Trump said in 2016 just before launching a massive fundraising machine.
In 2016, he sunk $66 million of his own money into his campaign.
Now, he’s considering throwing in another $100 million.
“The billionaire president has talked about the idea with multiple people, though he hasn’t yet committed to any self-funding,” Bloomberg News reports, noting “it would be unprecedented for an incumbent president to put his own money toward winning a second term.”
Last month Joe Biden raised a historic $365 million.