Donald Trump was practically giddy last night as he stood before a group of supporters in Pennsylvania and proudly announced that his campaign had raised $35.8 million during the month of July, adding:
“It’s gonna be announced tomorrow or the next day: we’ve raised, we think, about $35.8 million. This is unheard of for Republicans, $35.8 million.”
Fact check time: In 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney raised $101 million in July of that year. Just a tiny bit more than the Orange Menace managed four years later.
But the real contrast between Trump’s $35.8 million is when you compare it to what the Hillary Clinton campaign put in their coffers at the same time: $90 million. So Trump is now lagging behind Clinton by approximately $54 million in just one month’s time.
And if you look at the overall fundraising numbers so far, you see exactly why Trump is destined to lose, and lose very badly:
- As of June 30, Clinton had raised $600 million
- As of June 30, Trump had raised 296.6 million
So Clinton is running a two-to-one advantage over Trump and is clearly well on her way to raising over $1 billion before Election Day on November 8.
Money is the lifeblood of any campaign, and with usual big donors such as the Koch brothers refusing to give Trump a dime–or spend any money against Clinton–Trump is bound to lag far behind when it comes to funding during the last stretch of the campaign. This means Clinton can run two ads to every single one Trump runs. She can hire twice as many people, travel twice as often, arrange for much better campaign rallies in more high-priced locations, than Trump can.
Now it’s not impossible for Trump to still win in November, but the window of opportunity he has is so small–and getting smaller by the minute–that pretty soon a sheet of paper won’t fit into it. Campaign manager Paul Manafort thinks Trump can win several important states: Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. But with each day that passes, the chance of Trump even carrying normally Republican states such as Georgia and Utah grows fainter.
Is the race for the White House over with? Not yet, but Trump is fading fast, and it doesn’t appear money is there for him to pull an upset.
Featured Image Via Salon.com
