Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss
and Eyes the Future
The president’s campaign has ratcheted up its appeals
for cash, but the first 75 percent of every contribution is going to a new
political action committee that could fund his next political move.
President Trump’s campaign has told supporters that it
needs donations for an “Election Defense Fund,” but much of the money could be
used to seed his next political steps.
By Shane
Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman
Nov. 30,
2020
President
Trump has raised about $170 million since Election Day as his campaign
operation has continued to aggressively solicit donations with hyped-up appeals
that have funded his fruitless attempts to overturn the election and that have
seeded his post-presidential political ambitions, according to a person
familiar with the matter.
The money,
much of which was raised in the first week after the election, according to the
person, has arrived as Mr. Trump has made false claims about fraud and sought
to undermine public confidence in the legitimacy of President-elect Joseph R.
Biden Jr.’s victory.
Instead of
slowing down after the election, Mr. Trump’s campaign has ratcheted up its
volume of email solicitations for cash, telling supporters that money was
needed for an “Election Defense Fund.”
In reality,
the fine print shows that the first 75 percent of every contribution currently
goes to a new political action committee that Mr. Trump set up in mid-November,
Save America, which can be used to fund his political activities going forward,
including staff and travel. The other 25 percent of each donation is directed
to the Republican National Committee.
A donor has
to give $5,000 to Mr. Trump’s new PAC before any funds go to his recount
account.
Still, the
Trump campaign continues to urgently ask for cash. On Monday, Mr. Trump signed
a campaign email that breathlessly told supporters that the end of November —
nearly four weeks after Election Day — represented “our most IMPORTANT deadline
EVER.”
The
Washington Post reported earlier on Monday that Mr. Trump’s postelection
efforts had raised more than $150 million. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Mr.
Trump’s campaign, declined to comment on the fund-raising.
The $170
million figure, raised in less than four weeks, is an enormous sum that rivals
the amounts of money brought in at the peak of the campaign. While a breakdown
of the money was not immediately available, the deluge of donations would
appear to have paid off any remaining Trump campaign debt (in the first days
after the election, the fine print showed that contributions were earmarked for
that purpose). The money is also likely to provide Mr. Trump with a sizable
financial head start in paying for his post-presidency political activities.
Despite the
influx of cash, both the Trump campaign and the R.N.C. have reduced the size of
their staffs since the election.
In October,
Mr. Trump’s campaign began automatically checking a box on its website so that
more donors would make additional, weekly donations from their accounts through
Dec. 14 — the day the Electoral College will vote — to create a postelection
revenue stream. Donors can opt out with an extra click, but critics called the
tactic misleading.
Mr. Trump’s
team created the political action committee, known as a leadership PAC, in part
to capture the influx of postelection money, according to people familiar with
the matter.
Currently,
donors on Mr. Trump’s website are opted in with a prechecked box to make
monthly contributions.
Rob
Flaherty, who served as Mr. Biden’s digital director, said on Twitter that the
huge sums raised by Mr. Trump since the election were “plain and simple grift.”
On Monday,
Arizona and Wisconsin, two key battlegrounds that Mr. Biden flipped this year,
certified their election results, formalizing Mr. Biden’s victory as Mr. Trump
and his allies have continued to complain without evidence of fraud.
Shane
Goldmacher is a national political reporter and was previously the chief
political correspondent for the Metro Desk. Before joining The Times, he worked
at Politico, where he covered national Republican politics and the 2016
presidential campaign. @ShaneGoldmacher
Maggie
Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a
campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018
for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT
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