Trump enters the mainstream of the campaign despite a storm of funding hurdles

WAS SHINGTON – President, lost his cash advantage Donald Trump Has entered its final belt Re-election Races to cope with major hurricanes, including the support of large donors, prefer to sit on the sidelines or move their resources into an increasingly competitive Senate race.

Trump 0 210 million in August Gust – a large sum, but much shorter than the Democratic nominee B Biden’s $ 365 million. Although the president began to fund almost three years on Biden, in late July both campaigns had almost the same amount of money left over in their war chests. Their full financial filings for full gust have not been presented in any campaign.

Now, in the final weeks of the race, many big Republican donors have reached the limit of how much they can legally donate. Others would be reluctant to give more to Biden in the polls after seeing this cycle burn by $ 800 million to advance nationally and in key swing states. At the same time, donors are being urged to contribute to the increasing number of Republican senators facing a tough race, with many of Trump’s biggest donors drawing resources there since 2016.

“It’s crushing that the economic gain we made has completely evaporated,” said Dan Eberhart, a major Republican donor. “I think it’s a crushing blow to Trumpworld right now.”

Trump, self-proclaimed millionaire, Said On Tuesday, if he needed to, he would be willing to put in his own money campaign – a move he used to boost his confidence about his chances of winning in 2016. Bloomberg News was the first Report That Trump was discussing giving 100 million to his campaign. This is the same amount he repeatedly promised to give in 2016, although his actual total contribution is 66 million, some of which were wired for the campaign only in the final days of the race.

Trump campaign officials say they have enough money to make money on election day – denying the importance of money in the race while publishing where and how it is spent, in which they plan to run in the next two months. 200 million. Regardless of who wins the money race, both campaigns are expected to cost more than $ 1 billion in an effort to reach one million voters in the war-torn states, said a person close to the Trump campaign.

“If money was the only factor in politics for winners and losers, then Jeb Bush would have been nominated in 2016 and we would have been President Clinton at the Oval Office now,” said Bill Stepian, the campaign manager. Reporters on Tuesday.

But the campaign behaves like a stretched out operation for resources, and a person close to the re-election effort said there has been a significant change in how money is spent since Stephen took over as campaign manager in July. The campaign has twice gone off the airwaves in major states to save cash and redirect ad dollars to early voting states. He has also reduced the cost of small items like how many staff trips and food costs.

“Now we’re managing the budget carefully,” Stephen said. “I consider it one of the most important tasks, if not the most important, for any campaign manager. The first thing I did was create a budget and recreate it. ”

Trump is using his advantage to save cash. Choosing the White House for his convention address, Trump said it was the most “cost-conscious” place. The president has increasingly used taxpayer-paid official White House events for attacks on Joe Biden – such as during a World War II trip to North Carolina last week – to blur the line between where his political activities stop and where the president’s duties begin. .

“You can’t imagine a messy platform to get our message out and present the President’s message for free through regular coverage of presidential press conferences, events, you can’t underestimate it,” said a person close to the campaign. “It’s worth billions of dollars.”

Trump, who, like his opponent, has not raised virtual funds during the epidemic, will go on to raise money for a fundraising campaign this week in Las Vegas, the hometown of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.

On Tuesday, he justified the huge surge in spending this year, tweeting that “we need to deal with fake news reporting about how we handle coronaviruses.” A person close to the campaign suggested that Trump would come down even further in the election if the campaign had not been for the money spent to save him in the past year.

But donors and strategists say they see plenty of wasted money which is why they consider places that can be put in a better place to use their dollars. New York Times Report This week Brad Parscal, a former Trump campaign manager, created a series of questionable expenses for cars and drivers, including $ 110,000 on magnetic cellphone pouches and tens of millions of dollars on legal bills to prevent donors from secretly recording Trump.

“At this final stage, when people feel that they are a close race and they can make a difference, they will be ready to contribute at the last minute. But right now, they don’t think he can make a difference and say: ‘Geez, am I just flushing in the toilet? Is this just going to be a legal bill? ” Said a Republican strategist.

The strategist said he recently advised a client to use the money instead he was going to give to Trump’s convention in the Republican Senate race. Eberhart said he is also turning his attention to the Senate and other donors are looking at the same. Many GOP senators are once again facing tight re-election bids on seats that were once considered safe, such as San John Ernst in Iowa and San Martha M. Cusley in Arizona.

“I think big donors are increasingly focusing on the Senate,” Eberhart said. He said that as Biden moves forward in the vote, “donors are increasingly considering running the Senate as we should.”

The National Republican Sanitary Campaign Committee has seen a surge in donations over the summer and is surpassing its democratic counterpart in its election cycle, according to election filings until July.

With Trump’s thunderous turnout during the summer, that kind of spending contributes to demoralization among donors. But the campaign is trying to turn that impression under Stepin.

“Two months ago, the feeling in the donor class was very pessimistic and it wasn’t just limited to donors, they were operative, they were White House staff, a lot of people knew they didn’t feel great about where things are.” Closer to the campaign. “We’re constantly moving through the hole we had during the summer.”

After nearly four years of funding, some small and medium-sized donors have reached the 2,800 limit they can give to the campaign. The list of donors who wrote letters to the Trump campaign from the FEC that exceeded their legal limits is more than 50 pages long, which is longer than the list of biden donors.

Meanwhile, a number of Republican mega-donors, some of whom gave Trump a run for their money in 2016, have largely stuck around this time, according to campaign filings through July.

Trump’s biggest donor of 2016, Robert Mercer, who gave છેલ્લા 15.5 million last cycle, has given only 3 360,000 to the campaign. Peter Thiel, a tech entrepreneur who paid Trump 1. 1.25 million in 2016, gave only 250 250,000 to Trump’s campaign in 2018, while spending nearly 1 1 million on Kris Kobach’s failed attempt to win a Republican Senate nomination in Kansas this summer. And billionaire investor Carl Eiken and his wife Gail Golden-Icon, who donated $ 260,000 in 2016, contributed only, 4,760 as of July.

With big donors diverting their cash elsewhere, the Trump campaign – which said the G.O.P. Gust, including the convention, is the largest fund-raising fund for re-election efforts this month – it is increasingly dependent on small donors.

But they have also blocked a road there. In the past, large presidential rallies have been used in this campaign to collect donations from people waiting for the event to begin and to expand their database of small-dollar dollar supporters. But with the epidemic, Trump is hosting far fewer events, drawing fewer new potential supporters.

The epidemic has also left 27 million people nationwide out of work, and others feel less financially secure by putting pressure on small donors.

“To a waitress at a coffee shop, 10 10 is like ન 100,000 to Sheldon Adelson,” said the Republican strategist. “They read about the man with the car and the driver and saw that the voting started falling down. There is a lot of sensitivity towards small donors. ”