Trump Spent 91 Cents To Raise Each Dollar As Troubles Mounted

(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump raised $24 million in the third quarter, a 41% increase over the previous quarter, but he spent $22 million to do it.

Trump spent 91 cents to raise every dollar, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission.

The high-cost, low-margin fundraising came as Trump’s legal problems mounted following revelations from the House Select Committee investigating his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot of his supporters in the Capitol. 

In August, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his Mar-a-Lago residence, recovering classified documents that are the subject of an ongoing legal battle. In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, filed a $250 million civil lawsuit alleging business fraud against Trump and his three adult children.

Trump capitalized on the legal battles with fundraising appeals.

Following the FBI raid, Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, the part of his political operation that solicits his small-dollar donors, sent emails that read in part: “The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt, must be exposed and stopped.” 

After James filed the lawsuit, supporters received emails with the subject line “Radical Democrats campaigned on SUING ME.” Both emails asked for donations.

Small Donations

How much those appeals raised can’t be calculated from Trump’s filings, since he doesn’t have to itemize contributions for donors who give less than $200, and they accounted for $9.8 million of Trump’s third-quarter haul. To reach them, Trump spent $7.3 million on SMS appeals and a little less than $7.3 million on online ads. His third-biggest expense went to rentals of donor lists, which cost $2.8 million.

It’s not the first time that Trump’s small-dollar fundraising operation has had low returns for its spending. In the third quarter of 2020, Trump Make America Great Again, the small-dollar donor arm of his re-election effort, spent 77 cents to raise each dollar.

Still, the money he’s brought in is unprecedented for a former president. Since losing the 2020 election, Trump has raised $387 million and, despite the low rate of return in the third quarter, is flush with cash at a time when many of his party’s candidates are being outraised in the midterms. 

Save America, his leadership PAC, had $93 million cash on hand at the end of August, according to FEC filings. It received another $3.3 million from the joint fundraising committee in September.

Trump has endorsed more than 280 candidates in federal, state, local and international elections since leaving office, but Save America has given only $910,500, spread among 181 candidates, through the end of August. That’s a fraction of the money he’s raised. By law, his PAC can give no more than $5,000 per election to a federal campaign.

Key Races

Some Trump-endorsed candidates running for key seats that will help decide control of Congress, including in the US Senate races in Ohio and Arizona, are being outraised and outspent by Democrats. 

To offset that, Trump’s allies launched a super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., to back his endorsed candidates. It has spent $5 million so far to support GOP Senate candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada. The super PAC, which launched on Sept. 23, reported no receipts to the FEC during the third quarter. It only started booking air time in October.

Save America has donated $4.1 million to a handful of federal Super PACs that backed candidates he endorsed, and $2.8 million to Take Back Georgia, which supported former Senator David Perdue’s unsuccessful challenge to Governor Brian Kemp.

It also gave $1 million donations to America First Policy Institute, a think tank staffed with officials from Trump’s administration, and to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is led by Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff.

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