Donald Trump’s campaign on Wednesday announced it raised $51 million since late May, a sign that his first major fundraising foray has proved moderately successful.
The haul is likely to calm some fears that Trump will be unable to compete financially with Hillary Clinton, who has spent tens of millions of dollars on ads while Trump raised his first dollars. But Trump still starts in a deep hole compared to her — he had only $1.3 million on hand as of June 1 — and the new figures nevertheless reveal that he will be substantially dependent on the Republican National Committee.
Clinton’s campaign announced last week it had raised $68 million in June for her campaign and joint fundraising committees. But unlike Trump, most of that cash went to her official campaign, giving her more control over how to spend it.
Trump raised $26 million via small-dollar fundraising, and $25 million from 22 fundraisers for his joint fundraising committee, the campaign said. The lion’s share of the online money will go to Trump’s official campaign, and a heavy majority of the joint committee cash will head to the RNC.
The campaign did not specify how much would go to each group, or how much was raised in June as opposed to the last week of May. The RNC spends its cash not purely on presidential politics — as Trump’s campaign would — but rather on helping the entire Republican ballot.
Trump personally contributed $3.8 million to his campaign as well, bringing the total to $55 million. He did not reveal an updated cash-on-hand figure, a key piece of data that he will be required to share as part of a federal elections report later this month.
“The results from this month show the enthusiastic movement the campaign has created. People want to invest in a better future for America and Make America Great Again! The campaign very much appreciates the broad support,” the campaign said in a statement.
Later Wednesday afternoon, Trump appealed to his Twitter followers for donations, tweeting, “To all of my twitter followers, please contribute whatever you can to the campaign. We must beat Crooked Hillary.”
Trump only started fundraising in earnest in late May, and his national fundraising schedule took him from Texas to Arizona to West Virginia in the month of June. His campaign has struggled to attract top bundlers, and he is expected to trail Clinton by at least $500 million in total dollars raised.
Yet his digital operation remains a sign of promise: His campaign claimed that one of his fundraising emails collected $2 million at once, and a powerful low-dollar operation backed by his most fervent supporters could help close the gap with Clinton.
And Trump is expanding his high-dollar network, too. The Trump campaign and the RNC announced this month that they are adding about 85 fundraising veterans to their operation. Trump’s fundraising shop previously consisted publicly of only about 20 people.
Trump’s campaign said it attracted more than 400,000 supporters, with 94% of them giving less than $200.
Full details of Trump and Clinton’s June fundraising numbers must be reported to the Federal Election Commission by July 20.
