Let’s expense itTHROUGHOUT the presidential primary contest, Donald Trump’s claim to be self-funding his campaign always drew loud cheers. Part boast—“I’m like, really rich” he would smirk—and part a badge of incorruptibility, the claim allowed the property developer to paint all his Republican rivals as puppets of special interests. Voters at campaign rallies would reliably cite his supposedly vast wealth, and the independence it brought, as one of their biggest reasons for trusting the businessman.
Loyal Trump supporters forgave their champion when he secured the nomination and abruptly changed his tune, boasting in early May that he would create a “world-class finance organisation” to solicit donors and fill war chests for himself and for the Republican Party. The same Trump loyalists will doubtless shrug off headlines that greeted the release of campaign-finance reports for the month of May, showing that he raised just $3.1m from donors and has just $1.3m cash on hand—sums dwarfed by Mrs Clinton’s campaign, which raised over $26m in May and started June with $42.5m in cash on hand. Mr Trump himself...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/28SnQuu
EmoticonEmoticon