Just over three weeks ago, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted that his campaign “has perhaps more cash than any campaign in the history of politics.”
Good news is that my campaign has perhaps more cash than any campaign in the history of politics- b/c I stand 100% behind everything we do.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016
FEC filings released late Monday indicate that not only was Trump’s tweet not accurate, but his campaign actually stands out for how cash poor it is. Trump raised $3.1 million in May — the month he vanquished his last Republican presidential rivals and became the presumptive nominee — and entered June with just $3.1 million on hand. Compare that with the $27 million Hillary Clinton raised and the $42 million she had in the bank entering this month.
Not only is Trump getting lapped by Clinton financially, but his fundraising has been going so poorly that he’s actually behind a good number of U.S. House candidates:
Trump has less cash-on-hand than at least 50 US House candidates. Here's some for comparison: pic.twitter.com/rQesW3tAuK
— Marcus Hawkins (@HawkinsUSA) June 21, 2016
The news sparked renewed concerns that Trump simply won’t be able to fundraise to the extent necessary to run a viable presidential campaign. But during a phone interview on the Today show Tuesday morning, Trump said that if worst comes to worst and Republican donors don’t come around, he could always just self-fund.
“If it gets to a point, what I’ll do is just do what I did in the primaries. I spent $55 million of my own money to win the primaries,” Trump said. “I may do that again in the general election… I have a lot of cash and I may do it again in the general election, but it would be nice to have some help from the party.”
Despite Trump’s claims about his ability to self-fund, evidence from the primaries indicates it wouldn’t be as easy for him as he claims. Trump has loaned his campaign more than $45 million. He vowed to retire $43 million of that already, but didn’t do so before his latest FEC filing. And as ThinkProgress has previously documented, financial analysts and people who have worked with Trump doubt he’s actually worth the $10 billion he says he’s worth.
During the Today interview, Trump expressed frustration with the fact that Republican donors so far haven’t supported his campaign.
“I’m having more difficulty, frankly, with some of the people in the party than I am with the Democrats because they don’t want to come on,” Trump said. “Honestly, if they don’t, it’s just fine. I can win it either way. I mean I may be better off winning it the opposite way than the most traditional way.”