President Donald Trump has amassed $53 million his re-election efforts, new disclosures show, giving him a major financial advantage over potential Democratic opponents heading into 2020.
At the end of the second quarter, Trump’s re-election campaign had $33 million in the bank, with another $20 million coming from two joint fundraising committees with the Republican Party.
Trump’s re-election campaign, separate from the other two committees, reported raising $8.3 million in the second quarter. The Trump campaign’s two joint committees with the Republican National Committee – Trump Victory, which is designed to help Trump raise money from wealthy donors, and Trump Make America Great Again, which handles much of Trump’s small-dollar fundraising and merchandise sales – elevated the second quarter figure to a total haul of $17.7 million.
The second-quarter figures, showing money raised and spent between April and June, were reported to the Federal Election Commission on Sunday.
Trump has now raised nearly $90 million for his re-election bid over the entire cycle, from the beginning of 2017 through the end of last month.
The campaign and committees also continued spending heavily on legal fees in the second quarter, including more than $207,000 to the firm Jones Day, which is representing Trump, and more than $48,000 to McDermott Will & Emery, which until June represented Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.
The campaign and committees spent nearly $1.3 million on digital consulting and online advertising with the firm of Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.
The largest individual donation to Trump’s re-election efforts in the second quarter came from billionaire Dallas banker Andrew Beal, who gave $339,000 to Trump Victory.
Meanwhile, 98.5% of the contributions to Trump’s campaign – not including the two affiliated committees – came in totals of $200 or less, the campaign said.
“We are thrilled with the continued support of so many Americans who resoundingly approve of Donald Trump’s performance as President,” Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law and a senior adviser to his re-election campaign, said in a statement. “The American people clearly see how hard President Trump is working to reclaim their jobs lost to bad trade deals, increase their take home pay through historic tax cuts, and make their communities safer through his immigration enforcement and initial work to build the wall.”
The super PAC America First Action, which supports Trump and Trump-backed candidates, reported raising $5 million in 2018’s second quarter and now has more than $11.2 million on hand.
