The political press is abuzz today following a report that in a month in which Hillary Clinton raised $26.4 million for her fundraising campaign, leaving her with $42.5 million in cash on hand, Donald Trump managed to raise only $3.1 million, and only had $1.3 million in the bank thanks to another $2.2 million personal loans he made to his campaign. The fundraising report, posted late Monday night, received a mocking reception from political press and set off alarms among Republicans, who worry he’s not interested in raising money for himself or the national party and will get swamped by Hillary Clinton in the general election.
To be sure, the counterargument is whether and how aggressively Trump has been seeking outside funding to subsidize a campaign which has largely been self-funded to date, in keeping with Trump’s committment to keeping outside financial influence to a minimum.
And in typical fashion Trump has beaten back criticism over his “terrible” May fundraising report, by saying that he has “unlimited” cash on hand to fund his campaign because he can put up as much of his own money as he wants. And the punchline: “If need be, there could be unlimited ‘cash on hand’ as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million dollars,” Trump said in a statement. “Our campaign is leaner and more efficient, like our government should be.“
In a statement released on Tuesday, Trump also argued that “June represents the first full month of fundraising activity for the campaign” and that next month’s FEC filing should be used as a benchmark.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN STATEMENT ON FEC FILING FOR MAY 2016
The month of June represents the first full month of fundraising activity for the campaign and this will be reflected in the June FEC report. The campaign held its first campaign fundraising event on May 25th, 2016. To date, the campaign’s fundraising has been incredible and we continue to see a tremendous outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and money to the Republican Party. The positive response to our fundraising efforts so far is a further indication that the country does not want yet another corrupt politician like Crooked Hillary.
Mr. Trump added, “If need be, there could be unlimited “cash on hand” as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million dollars. Our campaign is leaner and more efficient, like our government should be.”
As The Hill adds, the Trump campaign held its first fundraiser on May 25 and only recently began sending out fundraising appeals over email. Trump recently completed a string of fundraisers in Georgia, Texas and Arizona, and he claims to have raised about $12 million on that swing.
via http://ift.tt/28M6bWY Tyler Durden