Trump Considers Splashing His Own Cash in Final Campaign Push: Report
President Donald Trump is considering spending as much as $100 million of his own money in a final campaign push to beat Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November’s election, according to a new report.
People familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg that the Republican president has talked about the idea with multiple people but hasn’t committed to it at this time.
Trump contributed $66 million to his 2016 campaign, but it is unprecedented for an incumbent president to use his own funds in attempting to win a second term in office.
The report comes as Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised $365 million in August, breaking a one-month record of $193 million that Barack Obama set in 2008 and narrowing Trump’s cash advantage.
Trump and the Republican National Committee have not released their August fundraising numbers yet, but reported they raised $76 million during the GOP convention last month.
“President Trump’s fundraising is breaking records and we are paying close attention to the budget, allowing us to invest twice as much from now until Election Day than we did in 2016,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Bloomberg.
“President Trump has also built the world’s greatest digital fundraising operation, a dominant ground game, and a third advantage Joe Biden can never match — enthusiasm.”
In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump said his campaign had to spend “a lot of money” to combat the “false reporting” on how he has handled the coronavirus outbreak.
My Campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and Fake News concerning our handling of the China Virus. Now they see the GREAT job we have done, and we have 3 times more than we had 4 years ago – & are up in polls. Lots of $’s & ENERGY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2020
Trump and the RNC have spent over $800 million since January 2019 on the campaign, while Biden and the DNC have spent about $414 million during roughly the same time period, according to Bloomberg.
Trump’s ability to quickly come up with the funds is unclear at this time; his net worth has declined $300 million in the past year to $2.7 billion, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported.
According to Trump’s most recent financial disclosure at the end of 2019, he has between $46.7 million and $156.5 million in various savings, checking and money market accounts.
Trump’s campaign pulled most of his television advertising at the end of August, The Associated Press reported.
Biden, meanwhile, doubled Trump’s advertisement spending across the country last month, investing big time in ads in key battleground states like Wisconsin and Florida.
The Trump campaign emphasized that it is still spending hundreds of millions on ads in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
“We have over $200 million worth of TV ads that are reserved [from] Labor Day until Election Day,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller told the AP.
“We’re speaking with voters in states as they’re starting to come online.”
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