Trump has not donated to his own reelection campaign

President Trump has reportedly not donated to his own reelection campaign even as he has continued to invest millions of dollars in his private businesses and as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden maintains a significant cash advantage over the president heading into Election Day. 

Earlier this month, filings with the Federal Election Commission reported that the Biden campaign had raised more than $177 million, compared to the Trump campaign’s $63.1 million, not including funds from joint fundraising committees. 

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that even after Trump announced publicly in September that he would invest his own money in his reelection campaign “if more money is needed,” the sitting president has not yet done so with less than two weeks to go until Nov. 3. 

“If I have to, I would, but we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters in September at Joint Base Andrews before departing for a trip to Florida and North Carolina. 

“If we needed any more, I would put it up personally, like I did in the primaries last time,” Trump told reporters, referring to the money he gave to his 2016 campaign. “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, four years ago.” 

Trump issued tweets earlier that day defending his campaign spending, writing that he needed to spend “a lot of money” in order to “compensate for the false reporting and Fake News concerning our handling of the China Virus,” referring to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Now they see the GREAT job we have done, and we have 3 times more than we had 4 years ago — & are up in polls. Lots of $’s & ENERGY!” Trump tweeted at the time. 

The Times reported Thursday that senior Trump campaign officials met with Republican National Committee (RNC) leadership in Washington, D.C., last week to discuss the campaign’s final weeks of spending. 

A person familiar with the matter told the Times that the discussion included the possibility of taking out a loan or delaying payment on some bills past Election Day to fully fund campaign operations. 

The Trump campaign’s deputy national press secretary, Ken Farnaso, said in a statement to The Hill on Thursday that “the Trump campaign has all the resources we need to combat Joe Biden’s Hollywood-funded, elitist campaign in the home stretch of this election.”

“We are confident that the American people can see through Biden’s smokescreen and know that our grassroots mobilization, unmatched enthusiasm, and comprehensive ground game strategy wipes the floor with Biden’s sorry excuse for a campaign,” Farnaso added. 

In recent weeks, the Trump campaign has pulled millions of dollars in planned television ads aimed at voters in Midwestern states, including at least $2 million in advertising spots in both Michigan and Wisconsin since September. The campaign has also canceled planned ad spending in Minnesota, Ohio and Iowa.

The Times reported Thursday that in response to the Trump campaign’s financial strain, the team announced that the RNC would help fund a $55 million advertising blitz in the final two weeks of the race in a number of battleground states.

“Every campaign makes fall ad reservations months in advance and adjusts them as Election Day approaches — including the Biden campaign,” Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told the Times, adding that the recently announced ad campaign was “a 40 percent increase over our initial plans.”