The president’s high-dollar fundraiser Wednesday night at his Washington hotel is expected to bring in nearly $10 million for GOP campaign coffers and his 2020 re-election bid, the Washington Examiner has learned.
A RNC spokesman said about 300 people are expected to attend. The president, first lady Melania Trump, RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn and RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel will be in attendance at the Trump International Hotel.
The fundraiser comes as Trump begins amassing campaign cash for his 2020 re-election bid.
“Of course he’s running for re-election,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said during Wednesday’s press briefing when asked about the fundraiser.
Access to the June 28 dinner will cost individual donors $35,000. For $100,000, contributors can be designated as members of the fundraising dinner’s host committee. In addition to the main re-election account established for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, this fundraiser will set aside money for the 2020 Republican primary, presumably to ward off any intraparty challenges.
“Right now, he’s focused on his agenda, focused on the midterms,” Sanders said of the president. “It will be the first election he’s raising money for the party. I don’t think that’s abnormal for any president.”
Federal law caps candidate contributions at $2,700 for the general election and $2,700 for the primary. But the Trump campaign has formed a joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee, enabling the president to accept big checks and stockpile extra money to invest in his re-election through the national party (campaign committees like the RNC are permitted to accept as much as $35,000 from individual donors).
In 2016, the RNC handled the vast majority of the expensive data and field operations for the Trump campaign. Romney McDaniel, chairwoman of the RNC and a Trump appointee, is hosting the event, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The money raised going to “Trump Victory” to be distributed as follows:
“Contributions from individuals (multicandidate PACs in parentheses) will be allocated sequentially according to the following formula: $2,700 ($5,000) to DJTP primary account; $2,700 ($5,000) to DJTP general account; $33,900 ($15,000) to the RNC’s Operating account; $101,700 ($45,000) to the RNC’s Headquarters account; $101,700 ($45,000) to the RNC’s Convention account; and the remainder, up to $101,700 ($45,000), to the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account.”
