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."
Subscribe to 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.
-
June 29 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include the AI genie, Iran saving face, and bad language bombs
-
A tall ship adventure in the MediterraneanThe Week Recommends Sailing aboard this schooner and exploring Portugal, Spain and Monaco is a 'magical' experience
-
How drone warfare worksThe Explainer From Ukraine to Iran, it has become clear that unmanned aircraft are rapidly revolutionising modern warfare
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custodySpeed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulingsSpeed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood fundsSpeed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat goneSpeed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensiveSpeed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer saysSpeed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primarySpeed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportationsSpeed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from
