http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-money-games-1463093509First he was going to self-fund. Now he isn’t. Meanwhile, Clinton raises $213 million.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
May 12, 2016 6:51 p.m. ET
Donald Trump the Businessman is fond of noting that the “best investments” are sometimes “the ones you don’t make.” Donald Trump the Presumptive Nominee may be discovering that the rules of politics aren’t always the rules of business—at least when it comes to money.
WSJ is a subscriber site so this is all they give you for free, but here are a couple quotes from the article...
Mr. Trump is brilliant at identifying issues that resonate with voters, and he early-on sniffed the benefit of claiming that he was “self-funding” his primary campaign.
In hindsight, it was a foolish move. It also wasn’t true. Of the $47 million Mr. Trump spent through March, $11 million came through outside donations. Small donations or not, this was other people’s money.
The other $36 million came in the form of a “loan” by Mr. Trump to his campaign. That’s key. People who lend money do so in the expectation of getting it back. And with his announcement that he will now openly solicit donations, we can expect that the fundraising will pay back the loan. The self-funding candidate was a mirage.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton has raised more than $213 million. Her super PAC has banked another $67 million. She started a joint campaign fund with the Democratic National Committee more than eight months ago, which has already raised $60 million. Mr. Trump is just starting, and he still hasn’t fully blessed a super PAC effort. Many major GOP donors remain on the sidelines. And it’s nine weeks to the Republican convention.
Yet Mr. Trump needs that cash, like, yesterday. The Clinton campaign is already lambasting him. One of Mitt Romney’s biggest mistakes was sitting silent early in the 2012 general election, partly for lack of money, while the Obama campaign pounded him as a craven capitalist. By the time the Romney campaign engaged in the fall, it was too late.
