Trump and Republicans’ August fundraising falls $154M short of Biden and Democrats

President Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raked in $210 million in August, raising roughly $154 million less than Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the same period. 

The news comes roughly a week after the Biden campaign and the DNC announced they raised a record $364.5 million, with $205 million coming from online and small-dollar contributions. 

The RNC and the Trump campaign touted their $76 million haul over the course of the four-day Republican National Convention, which bested Biden and the DNC’s haul of $70 million during the Democratic National Convention the week before. 

“Both campaigns are raising massive amounts of money, but have very different priorities about how to spend it,” said Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. “In addition to advertising, President Trump’s campaign has invested heavily in a muscular field operation and ground game that will turn out our voters, while the Biden campaign is waging almost exclusively an air war. We like our strategy better. The Trump campaign will have all the resources we need to spread the message of President Trump’s incredible record of achievement, on the ground and on the air, and define Joe Biden as a tool of the radical left.” 

Neither campaign has released its cash on hand numbers for August. The Trump campaign led in cash-on-hand in July before Biden recruited Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to be his running mate. 

Trump’s campaign and the RNC have spent more than $800 million on the president’s reelection bid. Biden and the DNC have spent approximately $414 million through July. 

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that Trump has considered spending up to $100 million of his own money on his reelection campaign, which would be unprecedented, and Trump later confirmed he would be willing to spend his own money if necessary. Additionally, The New York Times reported Monday that some in the Trump campaign have expressed fears about “a cash crunch.” 

Stepien on Tuesday sought to reassure Republicans, saying the campaign was “comfortable and confident in where we’re spending, how much we’re spending and how much we’ll have down the stretch.”

Biden leads Trump by an average of 7.1 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.