Top Trump funder admits 'donor fatigue' as his campaign lags behind Biden’s fundraising

23 March 2024

Former President Donald Trump may be the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, but his third bid for the White House is already at a significant financial disadvantage compared to President Joe Biden's reelection operation.

According to a recent Politico report, the ex-president is blocking off entire days on his calendar to call donors and ask them for help shoring up his campaign's infrastructure with less than eight months to go before Election Day. Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia), a top Trump fundraiser, admitted that trying to build up the ex-president's war chest is an arduous task.

"There’s donor fatigue," Loeffler told Politico, adding that "it's not going to be easy" to catch up with Democrats' fundraising.

"What we have to focus on is not just fundraising, but making sure that people understand the contrast between the two candidates," she said.

The Associated Press (AP) reported this week that Trump's campaign and his Save America political action committee raised a combined $15.9 million in February, and had a total of $37 million in cash on hand heading into the spring. That's considerably less than the $53 million Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised in February, with over $155 million in cash on hand between them.

"If Donald Trump put up these kinds of numbers on The Apprentice, he’d fire himself," Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told the AP. "But here’s why he ain’t got it: his extreme, toxic agenda of banning abortion, slashing Social Security, and promoting political violence is repelling donors and doing exactly nothing to earn support from the voters who will decide this election."

The former president's considerable legal bills likely aren't helping to win over donors, given that he owes in the neighborhood of $600 million in various civil judgments. His penalties and interest from his civil fraud judgment hover close to $464 million, and Attorney General Letitia James has signaled she'll begin the process of seizing his cash and assets as soon as Monday in the event Trump fails to find someone to guarantee the bond for his appeal. He's already had to post a $91 million bond in appealing writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation settlement, and he continues to appeal his $5 million sexual abuse judgment. Trump also has four pending criminal trials this year, each of which will require a significant financial cost as the ex-president has to defend himself from 91 felony counts in three separate jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has already begun efforts to use donor cash to pay down Trump's legal bills. After his step-daughter, Lara, was elected co-chair of the RNC and the party organization purged dozens of employees for not being sufficiently loyal to the former president, Trump and the RNC entered into an agreement where the national party apparatus would help Trump and his PACs pay his legal costs. The New York Times reported on the agreement, which was struck ahead of a Palm Beach, Florida fundraising event that asked top donors to contribute more than $800,000 per person attending.

"The invitation shows that the first $6,600 donated will go to Mr. Trump’s campaign. The next $5,000 will go to his Save America PAC, which paid more than $50 million in legal and investigation-related bills for Mr. Trump in 2023," the Times reported. "After that, the RNC gets the next $413,000, followed by dozens of state parties."

The RNC has the unenviable task of not only fundraising to run a competitive 50-state campaign, but to help Republican US Senate candidates in their efforts to unseat popular red state Democratic incumbents like Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Montana). Republican House candidates will also depend on the RNC for funds as House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) frail majority will depend on winning close contests in swing districts across the country.

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