Author: Bill Allison, Bloomberg; Translated by: Tao Zhu, Jinse Finance
Donald Trump raised $331 million in the second quarter, a fundraising tally that gives him more cash on hand than President Joe Biden , a development that could heighten anxiety among Democratic campaigns about the incumbent.
The amount raised by Trump and the Republican National Committee exceeds the $264 million raised by Biden and the Democratic National Committee this quarter. The campaign said it now has nearly $285 million cash on hand, while Biden reported $240 million — a stunning reversal in a fundraising battle that has seen the president’s war chest crush his opponent for months.
“Winning this quarter gives us a cash advantage,” senior Trump campaign officials Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a joint statement. They slammed “Biden’s increasing burn rate without any tangible results for them.”
Trump beat Biden in the months of April and May, winning the monthly money race for the first time. But the presumptive Republican nominee fell short of expectations in June, with Biden raising $127 million to Trump's $112 million.
Trump's cash advantage, though, comes at a time when his campaign is facing intense scrutiny from fellow Democrats after a disastrous debate sparked calls for him to step down and run another candidate.
Biden's campaign has reacted angrily to calls from party members, lawmakers and members of the media for him not to seek reelection. Biden sought to mobilize donors at weekend fundraisers that would allow him to defeat Trump and plans to speak with Democratic governors on Wednesday.
His campaign released June and quarterly fundraising totals Monday in a show of strength and to ease donor anxiety. Officials said Biden had his best fundraising month yet, managing to pile up cash even as the reelection team invested in paid media and staffed offices in battleground states.
Biden's campaign said it raised $38 million in the four days starting with the debate on June 27. Trump's campaign said it raised $8 million the day of the event, but did not release an updated total.
Trump, for his part, has stepped up his appeal to deep-pocketed donors and tapped into Republican anger over Biden’s May 30 conviction in a Manhattan trial for hiding hush money, eliminating Biden’s fundraising advantage. The campaign said Trump raised $52.8 million online in the 24 hours after the verdict, making him the first former U.S. president in history to be convicted of a felony.
Trump was in a weaker financial position early in the campaign, when his coffers were depleted by legal challenges and a contentious primary that attracted more than a dozen challengers.
Some of the party’s biggest donors have already opened their checkbooks for Trump. Crypto billionaires Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss each donated $844,600 worth of bitcoin to the Trump 47 Committee, which raises money for Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party. Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Blackstone Corp. billionaire Miriam Adelson CEO Steve Schwarzman both donated to it in May.
