Donald Trump’s newly released fundraising figures proved so anemic that Republican operatives are still shaking their heads and rubbing their eyes to make sure they read the numbers correctly.
The presumptive Republican nominee — who frequently boasts about his vast personal fortune — reported a paltry $1.3m cash on hand Monday evening, a total not even in the same ballpark as Hillary Clinton’s $42.5m.
After enduring an evening of Twitter mockery over his lack of cash, Trump on Tuesday moved to remedy his situation by sending out the campaign’s first fundraising email — with an all-caps subject line reading “THE FIRST ONE.”
Republicans already worry it may be too little, too late.
Republicans have been hoping that the Trump team would put together an organised fundraising effort, and in mid-May they were saying the right things about bringing in experienced bundlers and donors to lead a victory effort.
Defending his campaign’s financial situation on Tuesday, Trump pointed out that he could simply reach into his own wallet “if needs be.” Still, those who worked for Trump’s vanquished rivals, while fretting that Clinton’s war chest so dramatically eclipses Trump’s, were unable to resist the temptation to knock his funding strategy.
Several Republicans argued that it’s unlikely that the GOP donor class will make a mad rush to close the money gap between Clinton and Trump, since there’s still a strong distaste for Trump among some donors. Those feelings go both ways: One Republican donor who recently met with then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski recalled him suggesting that Trump strongly disliked asking major GOP donors for money.
A former bundler for Jeb Bush was even more direct about his disinterest in helping Trump.
“This is a guy who lent himself $30m or $40m so chuckleheads and suckers like me would go and raise money for him and then pay himself back. This is a total fraud. He’s a fraud,” the former Bush bundler said, referring to the fact that Trump loaned his campaign the cash and could still repay himself.
The question now, one analyst said, is what Trump does going forward in terms of picking a vice-presidential candidate and what he says in public. That could determine whether his fundraising picks up or not.
