Donald Trump narrowed President Biden’s fundraising advantage in April, raising more cash in collaboration with the Republican National Committee than his Democratic rivals. But Biden and the Democratic National Committee still have a strong cash advantage at a moment when key battleground state polls show Biden trailing Trump.
The Trump campaign and RNC reported that they jointly raised $76 million in April, about $25 million more than the Biden campaign said it raised across all its committees over the same period. Trump’s reported fundraising haul came as the former president was personally contacting high-dollar donors and encouraging them to give the maximum amount of more than $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee, which he formed in March to merge fundraising forces with the RNC.
One of Trump’s highest-dollar events was an early April dinner hosted by billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson in Palm Beach, where he raised $50.5 million for the Trump 47 Committee, according to the RNC. (The Trump 47 Committee allocates dollars sequentially to the Trump campaign first, then Trump’s Save America leadership PAC, the RNC and finally state party committees.) Trump told donors before the dinner that he wanted to double the $25 million Democrats said they raised during a March fundraiser with Biden and former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in New York.
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“President Trump and the RNC significantly outraised Biden and the Democrats in the month of April, thanks to the support of millions of small-dollar donors from every state across the country,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. She said the fundraising total was “especially remarkable when you consider [Trump] has been confined to a court room for nearly 9 hours a day over the past four weeks.”
April was a lower-key fundraising month for Biden, who made a major fundraising swing out West in March and made a push for small-dollar donors around his State of the Union address and his Super Tuesday victories. Both efforts helped Biden outraise Trump by about $25 million in March.
“April’s haul reflects strong, consistent grassroots enthusiasm for reelecting Joe and Kamala, and is giving us the resources necessary to invest in opening offices, hiring organizers and communicating across our battleground states in order to mobilize the coalition of voters who will decide this election,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
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The April FEC reports do not offer a full picture of Trump and Biden campaign finances, however, because some of the committees in their orbit — including their joint fundraising committees with state and national party groups — file quarterly rather than monthly. Reports filed in July will give a clearer picture of the number of high-dollar donors that have maxed out to the newly formed Trump 47 Committee.
Since last year, Biden and the Democratic groups backing his bid have been building a major cash advantage over Trump and his own allied groups. On Monday, the Biden campaign said it has a $192 million war chest across their political committees; the Trump campaign has not released a comparable figure.
Trump’s main committee and the RNC reported a combined $88 million cash on hand, while Biden’s main committee paired with the DNC reported a combined $146 million cash on hand. The Democrats’ edge stems in part from the fact that Biden faced only nominal opposition in the primary and could start raising money in conjunction with state and party committees much earlier in the cycle than Trump, who faced a contested primary.
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The financial strain that Trump’s legal bills have created on his political committees also is apparent in Federal Election Commission filings that were due Monday. MAGA Inc., Trump’s main super PAC, has refunded $60 million to Save America, a leadership PAC that the former president used to raise money shortly after the 2020 election as he was making false claims of election fraud.
Save America has been the primary vehicle that Trump has used to pay legal fees for himself and many of his associates, along with another committee known as Make America Great Again PAC. Even though Trump has continued to raise money for Save America through his joint fundraising committees, the refunds became necessary last year because of the bleak financial predicament of Save America, which has sometimes spent much more than it raised.
In April, Save America racked up $4.5 million in legal bills, including $1.1 million it still owed at the end of the month to various firms. Most prominently, it owed more than $800,000 to the law firm of Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead lawyer in a hush money case in New York. The committee has spent more than $15 million this year on legal fees.
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The Save America leadership PAC received more than $6 million in transfers from two Trump-aligned joint fundraising committees — Trump Save America and Trump 47 Committee — which also sent millions to the Republican National Committee’s legal fund. The RNC reported adding more than $7 million to its legal fund — nearly all in the form of transfers from the Trump 47 Committee.
Trump also has spent far less on television and digital ads than Biden. Since March 12, when Trump clinched the nomination, his joint fundraising committees spent about $4.4 million on ads. By comparison, Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund spent nearly $37.2 million, according to data from advertising tracking firm AdImpact. (The MAGA Inc. super PAC spent nearly $10 million on behalf of Trump during that time.)
FEC filings show transportation executive Timothy Mellon gave another $10 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC, which also received $1 million from Continental Resources Inc. Harold Hamm, a major Trump donor, is the founder and executive chairman of Continental Resources. Mellon’s latest donation to MAGA Inc. is in addition to the $16.5 million that he has given to the group since 2022. Mellon has also been one of the biggest contributors to a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. With a new $5 million donation in April, Mellon has contributed $25 million to American Values 2024, the group supporting Kennedy.
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Democratic groups have generally posted stronger fundraising tallies this cycle, a reflection of the enthusiasm many of their party’s donors are feeling about their chances of flipping the House and maintaining control of the Senate. The DNC has consistently outraised the RNC in recent months, although the RNC has been raising more money now that it is working in collaboration with the Trump campaign.
But the National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $13.2 million in April and spent nearly $11.7 million, entering May with $38 million in cash on hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $9.3 million in April and had more than $44 million in cash on hand at the end of the month.
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