Donald Trump started the year with around $25 million invested in his 2024 US presidential bid, substantially less than a year ago, according to new reports.
This small amount -25 million dollars (about 22.7 million euros) – which is distributed among four campaign committees, is much less than the 105 million dollars (about 95.55 million euros) that Trump reported at the beginning of 2022, reveal new campaign financial reports released this Tuesday. Wednesday by Associated Press (AP).
These data point to potential challenges for the Republican mogul as he prepares his third run for the White House, in which several GOP candidates may also compete for money from party donors.
In his political committees, including his main account, Trump has raised 9.5 million dollars (about 8.65 million euros) since the launch of his candidacy on November 15, an amount far removed from the gigantic sums of money that his campaign boasted of raising in days. or even hours, when he was still president.
As Trump grapples with questions about whether he will have a hard time raising money, especially as some Republicans openly debate whether it is time for the party to move on, his campaign has defended the numbers.
“The campaign has built an unprecedented operation both nationally and in early states since the announcement. The president will run an aggressive and fully funded campaign to take back our country from Joe Biden and the Democrats who seek to destroy our country,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Part of the reason Trump has less money than before is that one of his committees, a PAC [comité de ação política] called Save America, transferred 60 million dollars (about 54.6 million euros) to an independent super PAC, which supports his candidacy.
Some campaign finance supervisors have questioned the legality of this measure, arguing that the transfer exceeds the limits imposed on these committees, which were created to raise money for other candidates, not to finance a candidate’s political ambitions.
Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts, but cannot formally coordinate spending with the Trump campaign.
This committee, called MAGA Inc., began 2023 with more than 54 million dollars (about 49 million euros) to spend, according to reports presented Tuesday night to the Federal Election Commission.
Trump’s campaign got off to a slow start, with the former president making his first appearance over the weekend.
At rallies in New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Republican said he is more committed than ever and vowed to hold big rallies soon.
Trump recently opened his headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida, and is hiring.
Soon, the Trump campaign could recover an important source of income, when its account on the social network Facebook is restored, which allows it to communicate directly with 34 million followers, an audience seven times larger than the one it has on its own platform, TruthSocial. .
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that it will reinstate Trump’s account in the coming weeks, after a two-year suspension imposed after the invasion of the Capitol by protesters encouraged by the former president on January 6.
At least one Republican candidate is poised to enter the White House race soon: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a former Trump ambassador to the United Nations, who is expected to announce her candidacy on February 15.
Source: TSF
