GOP insiders worry about ‘weak’ June Trump fundraising

The presumptive Republican nominee announced that his campaign raised $51 million in June, plus a few days toward the end of May. Trump contributed an additional $3.8 million from his personal fortune for a total take of $55 million.

It was impressive compared to the measly $3.1 million that Trump raised in May.

But Trump’s June fundraising is less to cheer about compared to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who raised $68.5 million, not to mention the $106.1 million that Mitt Romney raised in June of 2012 as the GOP nominee.

There also are several unanswered questions that make it difficult to assess how effective Trump’s finance operation was during the final month of the crucial second quarter fundraising period. Context matters, and upon dissection, Trump’s $51 million raised looks less remarkable than on first blush.

To begin with, Trump did not disclose how much money the campaign had in the bank to spend against Clinton as of June 30 (she had more than $44 million to spend against him.)

Second is the issue of low-hanging fruit and how that translated for Trump, both online and from major donors and bundlers who raised money for Trump’s joint finance events with the Republican National Committee.

Trump financed his primary campaign with his own money from his personal coffers. He did not begin soliciting donations until late May.

That means that donors, both small and wealthy, were fresh and potentially eager to give, having not been exhausted or burned out by a series of previous “asks” for money during the past year.

From that standpoint, Trump raising $25 million from 22 events that, according to the campaign, stretched from late May through June 30, looks tepid.

That’s especially the case since donors are permitted to give up to $449,400 to the joint fundraising committee established by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. In 2012, the Romney-RNC joint fundraising committee could only accept contributions of up to $75,800 per individual or $151,600 per couple.

“Twenty-two events raising $25 million? On the surface that looks pretty weak considering how much they can accept into the joint account,” said a Republican fundraising strategist, who, like others, requested anonymity in order to speak candidly.

“Sounds to me like they are trying to gloss over the major donor figures with the emphasis on the online stuff,” this strategist continued, “which is theoretically good for the campaign, but not good for the anemic ground game that should be funded by the RNC.”

Trump campaign finance chairman Steven Mnuchin said in a statement the he was pleased with the results.

“We just started our fundraising efforts in the last week of May and we are extremely pleased with the broad-based support in the last five weeks,” he said in a statement.

The Trump campaign on Wednesday afternoon announced figures the New York businessman raised for his presidential campaign committee and the joint fundraising committee his campaign formed with the RNC and a collection of state parties.

Federal law permits Trump’s campaign committee to accept up to $2,700 from an individual donor; with the rest of any contribution to the joint fundraising committee going to the RNC and participating state Republican parties.

Trump Tower said its online fundraising from small, individual donors brought in more than $26 million, including $20 million to his campaign and $6.6 million to the joint fundraising committee with the RNC.

More than 400,000 donors contributed, with 94 percent of them chipping in less than $200 each. Trump collected most of this cash during the last 10 days of June.

Some Republican consultants downplayed the achievement. Citing Trump’s fervent grassroots following and the fact that he had never before asked them to donate leading to a sort of pent-up willingness to contribute, they said he could have raised more. Some Republicans also questioned the technical proficiency of Trump’s email fundraising operation.

But most complimented his online performance and lauded his ability to raise $26 million in such a short period of time. “Pretty impressive haul, especially small donations,” a Republican fundraiser said.

Republican campaign fundraising veterans were more suspect about Trump’s take from wealthy donors and bundlers.

The Trump campaign said that it raised more than $25 million from late May through the end of June from 22 events held around the country. That’s an average of just over $1.1 million per event, an amount that contradicts previous claims by Trump and the RNC.

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that a fundraiser in California, the first for the Trump-RNC joint fundraising committee, raised $6 million. While on a fundraising swing through Texas in June, Trump boasted of raising $12 million to $13 million for the party; that trip included fundraisers in Arizona and Nevada.

Those half dozen or so events alone would add up to nearly $20 million of the $25 million Trump said he raised for the JFC via the 22 events.

Regardless of the discrepancy, the aggregate amount is not very much money for a major party presidential nominee to raise over a five-week period, especially considering the high, joint fundraising committee contribution limit of nearly $450,000.

“Not very good,” was how one GOP operative described it.