GOP strategists privately fear that Trump’s ‘frantic’ fundraising will lead to donor ‘burnout’: report

Fifteen months after being voted out of office and losing to now-President Joe Biden by more than 7 million in the popular vote, former President Donald Trump hasn’t lost his fundraising powers. Republican voters continue to be relentlessly bombarded with fundraising pitches from Trump. But according to Axios reporters Lachlan Markay and Jonathan Swan, some GOP activists fear that Trump’s hyper-aggressive tactics could lead to “burnout” among donors.

“Trump is raking in donations,” Markay and Swan explain. “His political vehicles, led by the group Save America, raised more than $51 million during the second half of 2021. They also ended the year with more than $122 million in the bank, according to FEC reports. Trump's small-dollar fundraising operation is the vanguard, driven by ceaseless e-mails and text messages hitting up his supporters for cash.”

But the Axios journalists also report that “top GOP officials” are “privately warning” that “Trump's spamming of Republican donors could kneecap party efforts to build a steady funding stream for future elections and compete with Democratic fundraising.”

There’s a reason why the Republicans interviewed by Axios did so on condition of anonymity: they are afraid to publicly criticize Trump. But anonymously, they admitted that there is a down side to Trump’s relentless pitches. And the “three big risks” that Markay and Swan identify, based on Axios’ interviews with Republican strategists and activists, are: (1) “donor burnout,” (2) Trump making it “harder and more expensive for other Republicans to raise money online,” and (3) Trump “spurring other campaigns to lean heavily on his brand in their own fundraising appeals.”

“These complaints are frequently discussed privately in GOP fundraising circles,” Markay and Swan report. “Nobody of stature wants to talk publicly, for fear of retribution — because Trump remains the most powerful man in Republican politics.”

The GOP strategists Axios interviewed, according to Markay and Swan, said that Trump’s fundraising approach is problematic because of the heavy “volume” and the over-the-top “tone.”

According to the Axios reporters, “The appeals frequently rely on hard-sell tactics…. The immense volume and frantic tone of Trump fundraising appeals are making it extremely difficult for other candidates seeking GOP small-dollar support to break through, operatives said.”

One of those Republican operatives told Axios, “Conservative donors are getting six, 12, maybe even two dozen fundraising e-mails or text messages every single day. And the chances of them opening yours, let alone reading, clicking and donating, is pretty small to begin with.”