Donald Trump Could Take Big Money, But Will It Hurt Him Too Much?
Republican Donald Trump has based his presidential run on not being part of the GOP establishment and has been successful with Republican voters doing just that. While this may have helped him win in the primaries, it has put him in a very tough position heading into the general election. He has bragged about his money often, but money troubles are exactly his biggest “emergency” at the moment. And the solution to those troubles might cause even more problems for him.
It was revealed recently Trump is getting crushed in cash on-hand by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. According to FEC filings for the month of May, Trump finished with a shockingly putrid $1.3 million in his campaign bank, while Clinton had $42.5 million. For the election cycle, Trump has self-funded to the tune of $64.6 million and Clinton has raised $238.2 million. The Super PAC numbers appear to be equally lopsided in favor of Clinton to this point.
Trump is correct when he says he won’t need as much money to win because he commands so much media attention. That was absolutely confirmed by a recent Harvard study that showed the disproportionate media coverage of Trump helped hand him the primary victory for the GOP nomination. But can he win with so relatively little cash?
Hillary Clinton just purchased over $40 million worth of ad time in three battleground states – Ohio, Florida, and Nevada – to run over the next six weeks. It’s clear Trump does not have the luxury of even trying to counter those ads in the lead-up to the party conventions. This comes along with the reality Trump is well behind Clinton in recent polls in Florida, a state Trump will almost have to win to make it to the White House:
Collectively, the solid Democratic states since 1992 have become known as the “blue wall,” and if Clinton wins them and adds only Florida and its 29 electoral votes among the traditional battlegrounds, it’s enough to become president.
There is little doubt Trump is going to need more money and he needs it sooner rather than later. His campaign claims the money is “pouring in” but the numbers are a factual indication that hasn’t been true.
In fact, this may be one of the greatest ironies of this election. Trump has tried to self-fund and has dug himself a financial hole in which it might be too late to climb out. Clinton has embraced the reality of fundraising “obscene” amounts of money and is able to go on the offensive in the all-important swing states. If this holds, the Citizens United decision, that was originally based on a political hit on Clinton to stop her 2008 campaign, might help propel her to the White House in 2016.
Maybe an interesting side-note to this whole election might be conservatives finally being as fed up with money in politics as progressives have been for decades that something substantial actually gets done about it. We can dream, I suppose…
Where It Gets Really Hairy For Donald Trump
So, Trump has a decision to make and will have to make it soon. Does he continue going as is and try winning with a massively lopsided spending campaign running against him in states he must win? Or does he give in to wealthy GOP backers and start begging for money, a task he has already shown he doesn’t have the drive to accomplish?
If he doesn’t take the money, it appears he will have little chance at swinging the election his way. When attack ads running against him keep showing the divisive and disgusting things he has said and done in the past, it’s going to have its effect. Let’s face it. It’s going to be extremely difficult for any presidential candidate to answer for mocking someone with a disability, much less the litany of other horrific things Trump has said over the years. The mocking clip alone could lose him most battleground states.
But if Donald Trump does take the money, it might be just as devastating. NBC News recently took a thorough look at Trump supporters and reported this reality worth quoting at length:
If you go to a Trump rally and ask people why they support him, what’s the most common answer? You might be surprised.
It isn’t the border wall or his plan to ban Muslims from entering the country or his position on trade, although those come up regularly. It isn’t that he defies “political correctness” or “says what we’re all thinking, but afraid to say,” two phrases that come up often, as well.
Instead, it’s an issue that’s been almost entirely ignored by the Republican Party in recent years: Money in politics.
“He can’t be bought,” Eleanor Crume, 72, said at a South Carolina rally. “He’s not going to be bought by the lobbyists.”
“He can speak his mind because he’s not backed by these donors who say what he can and can’t say,” Travis Klinefelter, a 39-year old Iowa nurse, said.
“He’s not bought and paid for by special interests,” Dominic La Rocca of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida said. “Insurance companies, the banks, they get the law that they want.”
In other words, many of Trump’s supporters like him because he hasn’t taken the money which is beginning to kill his campaign.
The obvious question that must be asked now is: if Trump starts taking contributions from wealthy backers, will the gains from additional ad time offset the loses he takes from people abandoning him for taking said money? Will these new primary voters (not actually new election voters) turn their noses once they think he can be bought?
Only time will tell. But one thing is clear: Donald Trump is between a rock and a hard place right now and has to make a decision that could be devastating one way or another. And since he has basically brought this on himself through his own bravado, I don’t think anyone is feeling sorry for him.
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