So after months of embarrassing reports of the Trump Campaign hopelessly outpaced by Clinton’s in terms of funds raised and actually spent, they made a big announcement about a YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE July haul of something like $80 million.
Donald Trump's campaign posted $80 million in fundraising last month in conjunction with the Republican Party, powered by a small-dollar program that is allowing him to slowly close the gap with Hillary Clinton.
The Trump campaign and its joint fundraising operation with the GOP now boast $74 million in cash-on-hand. That nears the $102 million the Democrats banked after their July fundraising, per Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin.
Well, the FEC filings for July are finally in, and what do we really find?
Though the campaign touted an $80 million figure for its July fundraising, just $36.7 million of that total went directly to the campaign. The rest came in through joint fundraising vehicles with the Republican National Committee and state parties. At least $9.5 million of that money is off limits for spending on the election because it's designated for the RNC's convention, headquarters and legal accounts. Plus, the RNC is considering spending its money down-ballot instead of supporting Trump as tensions boil over between the party's apparatus and its defiant nominee.
The money the Trump campaign raised also didn't come cheap. The campaign more than doubled its spending from the previous month to $18.5 million in July, far more than in any other period of the campaign. Most of that money went toward expanding the campaign's online fundraising operation.
Meanwhile, spending on the 84-person staff and field organizing barely increased from the previous month, to just $392,000 and $432,000, respectively. The campaign dropped much more — $1.8 million — on hats and other merchandise.
The Trump campaign did succeed in improving its cash position, ending July with $38.4 million on hand.
So the monster figures cited do not come without the RNC numbers padding their figures. Without the RNC, the Trump numbers are less than half of the money raised, a little more than half of the money on hand. Of the money that the RNC is holding, while I have no doubt they are planning on spending most of it downballot, they are probably also using some of it as leverage to get more Dr. Teleprompter Trump and keep Mr. Hyde Trump at bay.
Meanwhile, they are certainly spending more of their cash, at least. But as it going to building their ground game? Apparently not. Geez, June and July apparently only account for less than a million worth of expenditures on the actual field organization. They spent 1.2% of their fundraising haul on the ground. Surely, the rest of that money is going to helping the people of Louisiana, right? Right?!?
And at least they are finally starting to air ads now, though not anywhere close to Clinton’s levels yet. One wonders how they can even effectively spend money on tv ads at this point. Other than, maybe replaying a lot of primary ads. Which, given Trump’s inability to pivot, might actually be the strategy!
So where is the money being spent? If not to air ads, if not to build a field organization, where is he spending it? Oh, on RAISING MONEY. Look, I get the old addage, you gotta spend money to make money, but according to the article, they spent about 8.5 million expanding their online fundraising operation. That’s nearly 25%, a quarter of the money they raised. For someone whose main claim to legitimacy is that he is a good businessman, I wonder how many successful companies spend 25% of their revenue on advertising.
And the hats. Oh, the hats. How in the hell do you spend 2 million on hats (and other merchandise)? Is he trying to make sure every child in Africa gets a Trump hat to go along with their Philly Eagle Super Bowl Champ T-shirts?
Look, this is dumb. These things that are happening, the only words I can think of to describe all of this are stupid, dumb, dumb stupid Trump stupid stupid dumb. I can’t believe we are talking about a Presidential campaign. I can’t believe we are talking about someone with the largest political machine available to him. This is a mess.
Look, I’m not a fan of the obscene amounts of money that are spent on these elections in the first place, but the reality of the situation is that these amounts of money are necessary to win a 21st-century American Presidential contest. But if you going through the trouble of raising millions and millions of dollars, at least use it effectively. Spend it wisely. Don’t just throw it all right back out the window.