‘Whatever it takes’: Trump says he’s willing to spend his own money as campaign’s cash advantage evaporates
President Donald Trump denied Tuesday that his campaign was in dire financial straits but pledged he would contribute “whatever it takes” from his own personal fortune to ensure the success of his reelection effort.
“If I have to, I would,” Trump said of potentially donating to his campaign. “But we’re doing very well. We needed to spend more money up front because of the pandemic and the statements being made by Democrats, which were, again, disinformation.”
The remarks from the president were seemingly in response to a review The New York Times published Monday detailing how the Trump campaign has already spent more than $800 million of the $1.1 billion it raised in coordination with the Republican National Committee from the beginning of 2019 through July.
The Times report raised questions about former campaign manager Brad Parscale’s financial stewardship of Trump’s war chest, which was once viewed as a historic asset ahead of the fall’s general election campaign. Among the campaign’s expenses were a car and driver for Parscale, who was replaced atop the campaign in July by Bill Stepien.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday from the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews, Trump insisted the “press was fake” and that his campaign has “much more money than we had last time,” at the same point in the 2016 White House race.
“But if we needed any more, I’d put it up personally, like I did in the primaries last time,” Trump said. “In the 2016 primaries, I put up a lot of money. If I have to, I’ll do it here. But we don’t have to because we have double and maybe even triple what we had a number of years ago.”
Trump loaned $43.5 million to his campaign during the 2016 Republican primary, and he routinely touted his self-funding as evidence of his independence from special interests.
Pressed Tuesday on how much of his own money he would be willing to put toward his reelection effort, Trump said: “Whatever it takes. We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country.”
The president issued a pair of tweets to the same effect minutes later, writing that his campaign staffers “did, and are doing, a GREAT job, and have a lot of money left over, much more than 2016.”
“Like I did in the 2016 Primaries, if more money is needed, which I doubt it will be, I will put it up!” he added.
Biden, meanwhile, has seen his fundraising soar in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign. Last month, the former vice president and the Democratic National Committee raked in a record $365 million in contributions — doubling Trump’s $165 million record haul from July and also surpassing the $193 million raised by Barack Obama in September 2008.
Trump has yet to report his August fundraising numbers, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Tuesday that he did not know when that campaign announcement would come. “I don’t know. I have zero visibility into that decision,” he said.
