Donald Trump is unconcerned about lagging $40 million behind Hillary Clinton in campaign cash

(Image credit: Ralph Freso/Getty Images)

published 21 June 2016

For Donald Trump, trailing his likely general election opponent by $40 million in campaign cash is no big problem. In an interview with Fox and Friends on Tuesday — just a day after the latest Federal Election Commission filing revealed that Hillary Clinton started the month of June with $42.5 million on hand, while Trump had just $1.3 million — Trump tried to pass off the cash discrepancy as a weakness for Hillary Clinton. "We want to keep it lean. I'm not looking to spend all this money," Trump said, pointing out that his campaign was different because he wasn't the typical politician. "You know, I hear people spend a billion dollars. I'm saying, how do you spend a billion dollars? It's impossible. Politicians are the only ones who can spend a billion dollars. Hillary Clinton will spend a billion dollars of Wall Street money and money from the Middle East."

Moreover, Trump contended, even if he is having trouble raising funds because of the Republican Party's hesitancy to embrace him as its candidate, he can just use his own money like he did in the presidential primary. "I have a lot of cash and I can do like I did with the other — just spend money on myself and go happily along, and I think I win that way," Trump said, though he admitted in an interview with NBC's Today show that "it would be nice to have some help from the party."