Donald Trump’s impressive fundraising haul in May raises alarm bells among Democrats. But what does it really mean?
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Fueled by the donations of gullible supporters who were made to believe that Donald Trump was somehow wronged when a jury of New Yorkers unanimously convicted him of 34 felonies last month, the former president’s campaign announced that it (together with the Republican National Committee) had raised an impressive $141 million in May.
An additional $150 million raked in by organizations supporting Trump brought the total to nearly $300 million for the month, the campaign stated.
The money raised by the campaign and the RNC came from two million donors, about 500,000 of whom gave money for the first time.
“The American people saw the Biden Trials for what they are: a sham attempt to keep President Trump away from voters and confined in a courtroom,” said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chairman Lara Trump. “Unfortunately for Democrats, their rigged political operation has backfired in a historic way, and Republicans are in a stronger position to FIRE Crooked Joe Biden and Make America Great Again by electing President Trump on November 5.”
While the campaign of President Joe Biden has not yet announced how much money it raised in May, it stands to reason that, after having routinely eclipsed the total of the Republican challenger in the months prior to April, the amount will be lower than Trump’s total.
So, what does that mean?
Not all that much, actually.
Most importantly, it seems highly likely that neither candidate will run out of money. With an unprecedented amount of money in politics right now, both campaigns, their parties, and allied super PACs are going to raise well more than $1 billion, which is insane.
Democrats concerned about Trump’s $141 million total should keep in mind that more than one-third of that money was donated in the hours after the former president’s conviction. Without it, he and the RNC would have raised less than $100 million, which is solid but also a figure Biden has reached before.
It does demonstrate, however, that Trump continues to be able to con a huge number of Americans into giving him money. In addition, he can count on a rabid base that believes every word he says, and there is little doubt that millions of MAGA supporters are out there who’d probably mortgage their homes so they can donate the maximum to him.
Furthermore, the former president’s haul for May will likely not fully close the cash-on-hand gap between the two candidates.
Because he doesn’t have to spend as much money on lawyers as Trump (and also doesn’t funnel huge amounts of money into his own pockets), Biden had $192 million cash-on-hand at the end of April, which was a fairly poor fundraising month for the president. That was about $100 million more than Trump… or roughly what the former president has spent on donor-funded legal expenses.
