Donald Trump vows to spend ‘$100m’ of his own money to get re-elected as campaign cash runs low
The president has said he'll dip into his personal fortune - allegedly to the tune of $100m - during the final weeks of his re-election campaign
Donald Trump has vowed to spend his own cash to get re-elected, amid reports he will stump up $100million to boost his campaign’s flagging finances. The billionaire president confirmed he would put his money where his mouth is in a tweet Tuesday.
He wrote: ‘Because of the China Virus, my Campaign, which has raised a lot of money, was forced to spend in order to counter the Fake News reporting about the way we handled it (China Ban, etc.).
‘We did, and are doing, a GREAT job, and have a lot of money left over, much more than 2016, Like I did in the 2016 Primaries, if more money is needed, which I doubt it will be, I will put it up!’
Bloomberg reported that the president will spend up to $100m of his own cash ahead of the November 3 election, as Democratic rival Joe Biden exceeded his fundraising efforts and pulled in $365million in donations last month.
Trump has slated Biden for campaigning via Zoom from his Delaware home for much of the campaign over coronavirus fears. But that low-key strategy helped Biden raise cash with minimal expenditure, and has given him an impressive war chest for the final phase of the election race.
Trump’s cash pledge came as a newly-released Forbes wealth index reported his fortune had dropped from $3.1billion to $2.5billion in a year. The slump hit after the property magnate’s office buildings, hotels and holiday resorts all made losses because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Tuesday that Team Trump has burned through $800million of its $1.1billion war chest since January 2019. That has left the president’s re-election campaign lagging behind Biden’s push for the White House with less than two months to go until the presidential election.
The Times said $350million had been spent on collecting information online, with that figure said to have paid for itself in donations from supporters it helped identify. Other expenditures include $11million on two adverts pushing the Trump administration during February’s Superbowl game.
President Trump filed to run for a second term on the day of his January 2017 inauguration – the earliest ever bid made by a sitting president. Political pundits say he has effectively been running the longest re-election campaign in US history since, and run-up astronomical costs while doing so.
Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale was replaced by Bill Stepien in July, with Stepien introducing curbs on hiring, travel and advertising budgets in a bid to conserve vital cash.
Republican strategist Ed Rollins – himself a Trump supporter – questioned the lavish spending, telling The Times: ‘If you spend $800 million and you’re 10 points behind, I think you’ve got to answer the question “What was the game plan?”‘
Rollins also accused Parscale of spending ‘like a drunken sailor.’ Polls currently show Trump trailing Joe Biden by as much as 10 points, but the president insists he will triumph on election day.
Parscale – who still works on the Trump campaign – insists his spending represented value for money, and said it had all been signed off by party chairman Ronna McDaniel.
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