On Monday, Federal Election Commission filings revealed that Donald Trump's fundraising effort is, shall we say, a bit low-energy. Rather than amass a large-scale fundraising operation for himself and the rest of the Republican ticket, Trump has apparently used much of his money to reimburse himself and his family for campaign expenses. And, as revealed in a report in The Washington Post on Tuesday, it seems Trump is less than keen on the idea of reaching out to party bigwigs for cash — despite calling on the GOP to "come on" board the Trump Train.
Per discussions with several party operatives, the Post revealed that Team Trump has hardly placed calls to any well-positioned, deep-pocketed would-be supporters. "No donors that I deal with — and I deal with national, Jewish, and women donors — none of them has gotten a phone call," said Lisa Spies, a longtime fundraising consultant for the Republican Party. Fred Malek, the finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said that "there's no way in this short time frame that's available [can Trump] build the kind of organization that will be competitive financially [against Hillary Clinton]." And particularly damning is this quote from pro-Trump super PAC strategist Ed Rollins:
"To raise money, you have to ask for money," Spies said. The Trump campaign claims that its FEC report for July will reflect a much more robust fundraising operation. To read more about Trump's finance fiasco, head to The Washington Post.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for November 29Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include Kash Patel's travel perks, believing in Congress, and more
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
Pushing for peace: is Trump appeasing Moscow?In Depth European leaders succeeded in bringing themselves in from the cold and softening Moscow’s terms, but Kyiv still faces an unenviable choice
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
