Trump getting crushed by Clinton money machine
The billionaire's campaign had just $1.3 million on hand at the end of May.
Several House members running for reelection have more cash on hand than Donald Trump's campaign. | Getty Donald Trump's campaign had a paltry $1.3 million in cash on hand in May â a mere fraction of Hillary Clinton's $42.5 million war chest â leaving the GOP frontrunner at a sharp disadvantage heading into the general election against Clinton's money machine.
On the same day that Trump fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, amid a steady stream of reports of campaign infighting and disorganization, the latest batch of Federal Election Commission filings show that the real estate mogul has a long way to go if he hopes to establish a financial operation that can compete at the national level.
The Trump campaign raised just $3.1 million from donors (including almost $2 million in amounts less than $200) and relied on another $2.2 million loan from Trump himself, who said he won't continue self-funding his bid through the general election.
Though the campaign trimmed spending to $6.7 million, from $9.4 million in the previous month, it finished May with just $1.3 million cash on hand. By contrast, the Clinton campaign ended the month with $42.5 million in the tank. Even the defunct campaigns of Ted Cruz and Ben Carson had more cash on hand than Trump's.
In fact, several House members running for reelection has more cash on hand than Trump's campaign.
Comparing cash figures was always a little spurious in the primaries, with Trump always poised to pump more money into his own campaign (despite conflicting accounts of his actual wealth and liquidity). But he has made clear he won't bankroll his bid through November, and he's still a long way from the $300 million his backers say they hope to raise -- already a retreat from Trump's original $1 billion goal. The Clinton campaign and its allied super PAC have already amassed more than $300 million.
The campaign's disarray doesn't stop with its finances: On Monday, Trump fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, after a turf war with chairman Paul Manafort paralyzed the campaign's ability to staff up and hone its general-election message.
The May FEC report showed just 69 people on payroll, to Clinton's 685. And the Trump campaign's spending offered no signs of building a national campaign infrastructure. The biggest expenditures included $350,000 for the use of Trump's private jet; $493,000 to rent Trump facilities such as Mar-A-Lago, the Trump winery, and two of his golf clubs; and $208,000 on hats.
The campaign, which has been hounded by sometimes violent protests and disruptions, paid the Secret Service $179,000 and $59,000 to private security company XMark.
One sign of a fledgling fundraising operation came in $3 million raised for the Republican National Committee through Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee formed late in the month.
