Trump’s 'money woes' forcing him to replace rallies with high-end private fundraisers

03 April 2024

Former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are significantly trailing Democrats in the 2024 money race, and that's forcing the ex-president to make difficult choices about how to spend his time on the campaign trail.

According to a recent Bloomberg analysis, the 45th president of the United States has been sidelining his rallies — which were once significant jolts of energy for his 2016 campaign — in favor of closed-door fundraising events with ultra-high net worth donors. On Saturday, Trump will be a guest at the Palm Beach, Florida home of hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, where his campaign is expected to bring in approximately $30 million from donors writing six-figure checks.

This is a one-eighty for Trump, who is used to filling gymnasiums with thousands of working-class supporters and giving a raucous speech. However, rally attendees have lately not been as reliable of a fundraising source. Moreover, each event reportedly costs his campaign roughly $500,000 when accounting for venue rental fees, security, audio-visual setup, transportation and other related expenses.

Rallies have also become tiresome for both the former president and even his supporters. In January, Politico reported that his Atkinson, New Hampshire rally — held in the wake of a massive storm that coated roads in snow and ice — started two hours late, and supporters "started to look a little bored" toward the end of the event as they "trickled toward the exits."

"Trump’s rallies, once the primary attraction in the MAGA universe, have become awkward sideshows in his grander political drama, which is now unfolding primarily in closed courtrooms and six-page legal orders," Politico's Ian Ward wrote. "Trump’s speeches have always been rambling and directionless, but in 2024, they have the additional drawback of being inescapably monotonous."

With the former president needing to fund both a nationwide campaign effort as well as staffs of attorneys for his four upcoming criminal trials, money has become a significant impediment to remaining competitive with President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee. Biden's campaign announced an eye-popping sum of $53 million raised in February alone, with $155 million in cash on hand. And that was before a $10 million haul raised in the 24 hours following his State of the Union address in March, and another $25 million from a New York fundraiser with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that due to their respective campaign's financial situations, Trump and Biden have since had a "role reversal" in recent months: Biden has been hitting the campaign stump in swing states, and his GOP rival has been lining up far more closed-door fundraising events than his rallies. While Trump held a rally on Tuesday in Wisconsin, Bloomberg's Bill Allison and Stephanie Lai reported that the former president seemed to be just going through the motions.

"[W]hile the theatrics of Trump’s latest rally were the same as ever – 'God Bless the USA' blaring from the speakers, grievance-filled remarks, derogatory nicknames – money woes are forcing him to be more deliberate about when and where to hold them," Allison and Lai wrote.

Aside from his campaign and criminal defense expenses, Trump's civil judgments are also a significant albatross around the former president's neck. He is currently appealing a $454 million judgment from his civil fraud case. That required him to post a (significantly reduced) $175 million bond guaranteed by a billionaire supporter involved in the subprime auto loan industry.

A separate $91 million bond for writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation judgment was guaranteed by insurance giant Chubb Group LLC, meaning the former president is leveraged to both of his guarantors as well as the State of New York and Carroll, should they ultimately prevail in the appeals process.

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