The Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns released their most recent finance reports on Monday night, and if money were votes and the election was on June 1, Clinton would have won in a landslide. In May, Trump brought in $3.1 million, gave his campaign another $2.2 million loan — bringing his personal loan total to about $46 million — and began June with $1.3 million in the bank, or less than the $3.8 million a month the Clinton campaign spends to employ 683 staffers. Clinton raised more than $28 million in May, beginning June with a war chest of $42 million. Her main super PAC raised another $12 million, while the main pro-Trump super PAC, Great America PAC, brought in just over $1 million
Trump's fundraising numbers are "disastrously bad," says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post, and his "paltry fundraising last month is totally inexplicable given that he effectively secured the Republican presidential nomination on May 3." The "stunning gap" between his haul and Clinton's "virtually guarantees Clinton advantages in every aspect of the campaign," Cillizza adds. "If fundraising is, at its root, a test of whether you can get people to vote for you with their checkbooks, Trump failed in May. And he failed with every possible advantage working for him: Momentum, decent-to-good polling and, at least for part of the month, a Republican Party that seemed willing to unify behind him."
The Republican National Committee is doing better, bringing in $13 million in May and beginning June with $20 million in the bank an $7 million in debt; the Democratic National Committee brought in $12.3 million, but ended May with only $9 million in the bank and $7.9 million in debt. The GOP is getting some extra help in its efforts to keep its majority in the Senate, with the Freedom Partners Action Fund, led by Charles and David Koch, bringing in $8 million for that effort and beginning June with $14 in cash on hand. Sen. Bernie Sanders also reported his numbers Monday night — he raised $15.7 million in May and began June with $9.2 million in the bank.