Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has trailed that of Hillary Clinton in at least one big area: campaign contributions. But things seem to be turning around.
According to the latest Federal Election Commission report for June, filed Wednesday, the Trump campaign brought in $25.9 million in contributions, including $3.8 million from the candidate. Last month, Trump’s campaign had just $1.3 million cash on hand, which caused widespread consternation among Republican leaders. The latest filing shows the campaign had $20.2 million on hand as of June 30.
The donations logged in June also represent a big jump from the $3.1 million received in May and close to the $23.8 million Clinton raised last month.
The June filing also shows that Trump forgave $47.5 million in loans that he’d made to his own campaign, including $1.8 million loaned from Trump in June. Last month, his staff had repeatedly said that Trump would forgive the loans he had made to the campaign, and forgiving the loans meant that Trump would make good on his promise to shoulder the burden of financing his own campaign during the primaries.
Trump has done well fundraising among smaller donors, as $12.1 million, or 47% of the total contributions, were in the unitemized category. According to FEC regulations, that means the donors each had contributed less than $200 during the entire election cycle.
But while Trump’s campaign has made progress, it is still trailing Hillary Clinton’s campaign in terms of cash on hand. On June 30, Trump had $20.2 million, far more than the $1.3 million it had at the end of May. That brought him almost to where the 2012 Mitt Romney campaign was in June, according to Politico. In comparison, Clinton had $44.4 million. At the end of May she had $42.5 million.
Trump’s lack of cash had meant that the campaign had a much smaller staff. That was reflected in the June reports. During June, his campaign’s operating expenses were $7.8 million. Clinton’s were $34.2 million.
The choosing of Indiana Governor Mike Pence was meant, in part, to help quell the GOP dissent and win over the establishment Republicans. The improvements in Trump’s fundraising may help calm the Republican National Committee’s displeasure with the lack of fundraising effort on the part of the campaign, reported by Politico.