Donald Trump announced on Friday he will donate $10 million to his campaign with less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 8 presidential election.
The move is an effort to equalize his campaign with that of Hillary Clinton, which has a significantly bigger pile of cash. As of Oct. 19, Clinton had $62 million to Trump’s $16 million.
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Less than 24 hours after CNN revealed that the Republican presidential nominee had contributed just $31,000 to his campaign in early October, Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier in a taped interview that he will give $10 million to his campaign before Halloween weekend.
“Interview tonight w/ @realdonaldtrump at Trump Tower. He tells me he’s planning to write his campaign a $10 million check today but won’t say whether he’ll make it to $100 million of his own money in,” Baier wrote in a post on his Instagram.
According to Baier, Trump said he will “see what’s needed” before making additional investments in his campaign, which trails Hillary Clinton’s campaign war chest. To reach the $100 million figure he has previously floated, Trump would need to contribute an additional $34 million to his campaign before Election Day.
“I will have over $100 million in the campaign, and I’m prepared to go much more than that,” the GOP nominee told CNN outside his new D.C. hotel on Wednesday.
Hours before Trump made the announcement, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the “strength of this campaign is not dollars and cents, it’s really the American people.”
“I really think it’s the message. I think it’s the agenda,” he said.
Trump’s deputy campaign manager David Bossie told reporters later Friday morning that the candidate and his team are “being incredibly efficient with the dollars that we have,” but would also like to see a greater advertising push in the final 10 days before next month’s election.
Trump currently trails his Democratic opponent by 5.2 percentage points among likely voters in the RealClearPolitics national polling average.
