Trump ramps up fundraising to close gap with Biden

Former President Trump and his allies are ramping up fundraising to close a money gap between him and President Biden.

Trump, known for his fundraising prowess in previous election cycles, has started off 2024 with a bit of a financially lackluster start. Biden significantly outraised him in the last quarter of 2023, $33 million to $19 million, and that gap carried into the new year. 

Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised over $65 million in March, a significant improvement from months prior. The Biden campaign has yet to release its figure for March, but it is likely to be also significant coming off the fundraiser last week that featured former Presidents Obama and Clinton along with celebrities like Stephen Colbert and Queen Latifah. 

On Saturday, the former president aims to outshine — and outraise — Biden with his own massive fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla.

“He can definitely catch up over time, and it’s going to be definitely needed for getting out the vote because it could be another very close election,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “That’s where it’s really going to make a difference.”

Trump’s big Palm Beach fundraiser

Trump’s campaign operation brought in $13.8 million in January and just over $20 million in February. But Biden’s apparatus easily outpaced that, with $42 million and $53 million. Entering March, Biden had a massive advantage in cash on hand, with $155 million to Trump’s $42 million. 

Incumbents often have a fundraising advantage in a general election and especially at the start, though 2024 is unusual with the challenger also having previously served in the Oval Office. But Trump seems to be indicating that he is kicking his fundraising into high gear with the event scheduled for Saturday. 

The event will feature several ultra-wealth donors like billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass and payday lender founder Michael Hodges. Hedge fund founder John Paulson is hosting the event. 

Guests at the event are being asked to contribute at least $250,000 per person. 

Trump will ‘do more with less’

The Trump campaign and the RNC formed a joint fundraising committee last month after Trump officially became the presumptive nominee to streamline donations. 

Bonjean said the committee will be more efficient than acting as separate entities and help focus donations to go where they can be most useful. 

He noted that Trump has performed well with small-dollar donations that will likely increase as the general election goes on and argued that the disparity between Trump and Biden would hurt other candidates more than it hurts Trump because of the “free media” that Trump regularly receives.

“Trump is a walking television ad, and no matter what his messaging is in those ads, the latest thing that he has stated is usually what leads the headlines,” Bonjean said. 

Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Trump likely understands that he will have less money to work with than Biden during the campaign because of how much will need to be diverted to pay his legal expenses. 

A key detail of the joint fundraising committee set up between the Trump campaign and the RNC is an arrangement for donations to first go to his campaign and a political action committee, the Save America PAC, that is paying his legal bills.

“But at the same time, though, he’s able to do more with less. He’s an earned media machine,” O’Connell said.

Alienated Republicans may fund Trump

Michael DuHaime, a Republican strategist who is a former RNC political director and advised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2024 campaign, said he is not surprised by the disparity because of Biden’s incumbent status. He also said Trump has alienated many of the traditional center-right donors who supported candidates like Christie and Nikki Haley and would normally strongly back the Republican nominee. 

Haley was able to hold onto significant financial backing through January and February, even with Trump winning most of the contests in which they faced each other in. She had the support of Charles Koch’s political network and megadonors like Home Depot founder Ken Langone. 

But DuHaime said he has seen some who supported Haley or other candidates start to get behind Trump now that he officially will be the nominee. He said Biden’s lack of outreach to anti-Trump Republicans could cost him the potential to win over valuable supporters.

Politico reported last week that Biden has not contacted high-profile Republicans who will not support Trump, including Christie and Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah), Todd Young (Ind.), Bill Cassidy (La.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). 

“I think that also has fundraising implications as well because he’s not cultivating that kind of traditional mainstream conservative pro-business right,” DuHaime said. “It’s not being courted by Biden the way that perhaps it could be, some of that maybe is looking for an alternative to Trump and may end up back with Trump.” 

Biden has stepped up his efforts to court former Haley supporters with her out of the race. The campaign has released ads and statements designed to bring at least some of them into the fold. 

“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement after Haley dropped out. 

DuHaime questioned the effectiveness of candidates’ television ads, given many voters’ feelings about Trump and Biden already set. He said money will likely matter most this year for getting voters to turn out to the polls. With Trump having to divert so much money to legal fees, Democrats could gain the edge. 

But he added that Trump’s expected $33 million fundraiser Saturday is both a big number and an expected one as a major party nominee. 

“It’s an impressive number, but it needs to be for him to be a candidate that can overcome obviously the many challenges that he faces,” he said.

Julia Manchester contributed reporting.