Trump defends his campaign’s spending as cash advantage evaporates
September 8, 2020
President Donald Trump defended his campaign’s financial decision-making on Tuesday, after a report provoked new scrutiny of his reelection team’s spending habits and squandered cash advantage over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“My Campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and Fake News concerning our handling of the China Virus,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Now they see the GREAT job we have done, and we have 3 times more than we had 4 years ago - & are up in polls. Lots of $’s & ENERGY!”
The president’s social media post came after The New York Times published a review on Monday detailing how the Trump campaign has already spent more than $800 million of the $1.1 billion it raised in coordination with the Republican National Committee from the beginning of 2019 through July.
The Times report raised questions about former campaign manager Brad Parscale’s financial stewardship of Trump’s war chest, which was once viewed as a historic asset ahead of the fall’s general election campaign. Among the campaign’s expenses were a car and driver for Parscale, who was replaced atop the campaign in July by Bill Stepien.
Biden, meanwhile, has seen his fundraising soar in the final weeks of the campaign. Last month, the former vice president and the Democratic National Committee raked in a record $365 million in contributions — doubling Trump’s $165 million record haul from July and also surpassing the $193 million raised by Barack Obama in September 2008.
Trump has yet to report his August fundraising numbers, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Tuesday that he did not know when that campaign announcement would come. “I don’t know. I have zero visibility into that decision,” he said.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
