Trump campaign has unrivalled funds before US election

President Donald Trump‘s re-election campaign is set to report that it raised more than $30m in the first quarter of 2019, edging out his top two Democratic rivals combined, according to The Associated Press news agency.

The haul brings the campaign’s cash-on-hand to $40.8m, an unprecedented war chest for an incumbent president this early in a campaign.

The Trump campaign said nearly 99 percent of its donations were of $200 or less, with an average donation of $34.26.

Trump’s fundraising ability was matched by the Republican National Committee, which brought in $45.8m in the first quarter – its best non-election year total. Combined, the pro-Trump effort is reporting $82m in the bank, with $40.8m belonging to the campaign alone.

Trump formally launched his re-election effort just hours after taking office in 2017, earlier than any incumbent has in prior years. By contrast, former President Barack Obama launched his 2012 effort in April 2011 and had under $2m on hand at this point in the campaign.

Obama went on to raise more than $720m for his re-election. Trump’s re-election effort has set a $1bn target for 2020.

Two entities

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement that Trump “is in a vastly stronger position at this point than any previous incumbent president running for re-election, and only continues to build momentum.”

Trump’s fundraising with the RNC is divided between two entities: Trump Victory, the joint account used for high-dollar gifts, and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, the low-dollar digital fundraising operation known internally as “T-Magic”.

The campaign is set to launch a traditional “bundling” programme – which it lacked in 2016 – in the coming weeks. Bundlers are mid-tier donors who bring in contributions from their associates.

Together, the Trump entities have raised a combined $165.5m since 2017.

Trump is benefiting from the advantages of incumbency, like universal name recognition and his unrivalled position atop the Republican Party.

Among Democrats, dollars are divided across a candidate field of well more than a dozen, while the Democratic National Committee remains in debt and has suffered from being dramatically outraised by the RNC in recent months.

Bernie Sanders topped the Democratic field in the first quarter, raising slightly more than $18m, followed by Kamala Harris with $12m and Beto O’Rourke with $9.4m. Trump is reporting a haul of $30.3m.

Online fundraising

Republicans have trailed Democrats in online fundraising ever since the medium was invented roughly two decades ago. But Trump has closed the gap, driving small-dollar donors who make recurring donations to the GOP like the party has never seen before.

According to RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump’s campaign has already had eight seven-figure fundraising days this year, and has taken in money from more than one million new online donors since Trump’s inauguration – including 100,000 this year.

The Republican committee said it is planning to spend $30m on maintaining and growing Trump’s email list alone, recently expanded its headquarters space to an annexe in Virginia and will soon invest in developing an app.

In 2015, Trump swore off outside money, declaring in his opening speech: “I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists’. I’m not using donors’. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”

He quickly reversed course on high-dollar donations after he won the GOP nomination, bowing to the financial pressures of running a general election campaign, and he’d already raised millions online through the sale of merchandise like his signature red Make America Great Again hats.

Trump gave or loaned $66m to his 2016 campaign, but has yet to spend any of his own cash for his re-election effort. Aides say they don’t expect that to change.