Former President Trump is far behind President Biden in fundraising, and could be at a significant disadvantage as the general election campaign gets into full swing.
Although President Trump raised more money in February than in January, his monthly income and cash reserves since the start of March have far exceeded Biden’s operations.
Trump’s 2024 campaign raised $10.9 million last month, and his community fundraising committee raised nearly $11 million, according to election filings released Wednesday. As of March, his entire business had about $42 million in cash on hand.
These numbers are far behind Biden’s campaign, which raised about $53 million in February, and had $155 million in cash in March.
“It’s terrible,” one Republican strategist acknowledged Thursday. “All I can say is they need to get better. Much better. I still think he can win regardless, but they need to stay competitive. , that is not now.”
Doug Hay, a longtime Republican strategist, said the numbers show anxiety among Republican donors, especially about the former president’s legal troubles.
“Money doesn’t determine everything, but there is a lack of cash in the vault, field staff are being laid off, and I suspect RNC funds will be used to pay Trump’s lawyers.” “The still-existing fear of not being able to vote is scaring more voters away,” Hay said.
On Thursday, the Biden campaign attacked President Trump, using the presumptive Republican nominee’s old NBC show “The Apprentice” mantra “You’re fired,” and calling him a race for dollars. He emphasized that he was losing.
“If Donald Trump published numbers like these on ‘The Apprentice,’ he would fire himself,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “But this is why he doesn’t understand. His extreme and harmful policies – banning abortion, cutting Social Security, promoting political violence – are repelling donors and the voters who will decide this election.” has done *absolutely* nothing to gain support from.”
“Even if he had the money, that’s not a message that voters would support,” Tyler added.
Mr. Biden’s spokesman, Ammar Moussa, noted in a memo to reporters Thursday that Mr. Trump spent about a third of the money he raised on legal fees, while the former president had four The problem doesn’t seem to be going away as he faces a criminal trial and dozens of felony charges.
And the Biden campaign expressed confidence that it will continue to improve its score, citing the $10 million it raised in the 24 hours after Biden’s State of the Union address.
Biden is scheduled to attend three fundraisers in Texas this week and two more next week, including one in New York City with former Presidents Obama and Clinton. .
Mr. Trump, who became the leading candidate for the Republican Party earlier this month, has a clear view of the general election showdown for voters and is likely to accelerate his fundraising efforts as he merges operations with the Republican National Committee (RNC). be. But the RNC itself has been lagging in the funding race, with about $11 million in the bank since the start of March compared to the Democratic National Committee’s $26 million in cash on hand.
Compounding Trump’s problems is that he is running out of cash to pay legal fees as he faces four separate criminal trials. He also faces a deadline to pay a $454 million judgment after a New York state judge found he was guilty of fraud by conspiring to inflate assets for tax and insurance benefits. ing.
The former president plans to host a major fundraiser in Florida in early April, which allies hope will pad his coffers and rally big donors to his side for a long general election campaign. I hope that it will be possible.
Some Republicans argue the money won’t help Biden, even if he has a lead in the race for cash.
“People think he’s old and weak,” said Republican strategist Sharmichael Singleton. “They think he’s an economic failure, a failure on immigration, a failure on Middle East policy. All the money in the world won’t change that.”
2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton easily outmaneuvered and outmaneuvered Trump during the campaign, but was defeated on election night.
Mr. Hay, who served as a communications aide at the RNC, recalled that campaign and said Mr. Trump could win again. He pointed to Biden’s current polling in key states and his still-submerged approval rating.
“Trump won in 2016 without a serious team or fundraising structure,” he said. “And if the polls and concerns are correct, we may do so again.”
Still, he added, “It’s clear that the donor community needs more reassurance.”
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