General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Trump's Billion-Dollar Campaign Lost Its Advantage
Money was supposed to have been one of the great advantages of incumbency for President Trump, much as it was for President Barack Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004. After getting outspent in 2016, Mr. Trump filed for re-election on the day of his inauguration earlier than any other modern president betting that the head start would deliver him a decisive financial advantage this year.
It seemed to have worked. His rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was relatively broke when he emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee this spring, and Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee had a nearly $200 million cash advantage.
Five months later, Mr. Trumps financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/us/politics/trump-election-campaign-fundraising.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
qwlauren35
(6,148 posts)I am laughing my head off.
Now, we just have to use our money wisely.
Cookies and water for volunteers is money well spent. (Oh wait, they are doing it from home... OK, a free button.)
Aristus
(66,352 posts)and into the personal accounts of many, if not all, of the immediate Trump family.
How much of it Putin will demand is unknown. But Trump's method of paying back in kind is working out spectacularly well for Putin, and horribly for the United States.
tanyev
(42,556 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,765 posts)Trump's business model is reneging on loans, screwing his workers, and swindling his investors.
kurtcagle
(1,603 posts)Remember, Trump has repeatedly gone bankrupt throughout his career, and usually gets save at the last minute only by launching some new Ponzi scheme somewhere else. My suspicion is that he actually doesn't own all that much - most of his properties ended up getting sold off to others with Trump just retaining a licensing fee for using his name. He tends to spend profligately, but not effectively.
His 2020 primary campaign is a case in point. Parscale produced a number of cheesy ads early on, while the Democrats were still determining their candidate, primarily glorifying Trump to his base. Had they held their fire, they could have started ramping things up around August. Instead, most of their money went into rallies that got canceled, poor attack ads and, as been suggested here several times, into Trump's pocket. I wondered when they cancelled a significant chunk of their ad buys in July for August if they weren't short of cash, and the evidence is piling up that they are.
I think the other thing that's happening is that they AREN'T getting RNC or PAC ads in the volume they expected, which means that they are likely also having to spend more on airtime than they budgeted. Biden's getting a lot of free advertisement right now, Lincoln Project, Bloomberg, and so forth, which means that he can concentrate more on positive ads for the Biden/Harris ticket. With Adelsen out of the equation, Murdoch giving the election a bye, and so forth, it means that Trump's reliant upon Putin, but Putin's facing the collapse of the Russian oil economy right now, and is likely proving a lot stingier about support than in the past.
Tanuki
(14,918 posts)and Biden isn't given equal free air time. This must be worth millions, and it isn't fair.
Cha
(297,220 posts)go to the Cemetery. It was reported he was denigrating Dems on Foreign soil.
A lot of of his Big Bloated free campaign propaganda pressers have not worked out so well for him.
It must frustrate the piss outta him.. "Why don't they like me?. Wah!"
liberalla
(9,247 posts)Trump was mad because Shel had stopped or slowed his huge contributions to the campaign.
Poor gop they can't use the NRA anymore... What about the oligarchs? what about Putin?
found a link:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/08/trump-antagonizes-sheldon-adelson-phone-call-392688
Tarc
(10,476 posts)The Trump campaign placed a series of flattering ads on television channels they knew President Donald Trump would watch, in an attempt to quell anxieties about his election prospects, reported the Daily Beast.
The Beast, citing Federal Communications Commission records, said that Trump officials spent around $400,000 on the ads.
They mostly aired on Fox News, but also appeared on liberal-leaning CNN and MSNBC which the president is known to "hate watch."
A drop in the bucket of 1 billion, sure, but surely there are more examples of frivolous spending.
C_U_L8R
(45,002 posts)It would not surprise to find some exponentially expanding secret offshore bank accounts.
Xolodno
(6,395 posts)Adelsen has donated money, just not to Trump's campaign. In the form of PAC's and Senator's, instead. And why should he, the lost casino revenue due to the pandemic has to be tearing him a new one right now, so he doesn't have as much funds as before. Add to that, Trump is an incumbent, should have no problem raising money...and he didn't.
Other big donors are also probably hit hard with the pandemic so they can't contribute as much.
His base, they live on government hand outs. They may send over a buck or two, but that's all he's going to get.
Right Wing business owners are in dire straits.
But despite that, he amassed a huge war chest....and blew it all the way. Bet a lot of his top campaign staff lived high on the hog and Trump branded properties where they were spending all that money.
And Putin, he closed the spigot off to the NRA to funnel money to Trump. His investment more than paid off and I'm sure his advisers are telling him not to waste any more money as a Trump win is unlikely and they squeezed all the juice they got of that orange.
SpaceNeedle
(191 posts)The last people to send invoices to his campaign will not get a penny.
Wounded Bear
(58,654 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,684 posts)ivanka's purses?