Trump team finished August with $97M in the bank

by Jonathan Swan - 09/08/16 2:03 PM ET

Donald Trump finished August with a ton of cash on hand, with his campaign and joint fundraising committees claiming a combined $97 million in the bank.

{mosads}That’s an extraordinary amount of cash to have lying around — even if it is divided between the campaign and the national and state parties — and it says as much about Trump’s reluctance to spend money on paid advertising as it does about his improved fundraising.

Trump, combined with two joint fundraising committees steered by the Republican National Committee, raised $90 million in August, according to a statement from the Trump campaign Thursday.

The August haul is Trump’s best month of fundraising yet but falls well short of the $143 million Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her allied committees raised in the same month.

But Trump, the Republican nominee, has been spending far less on campaigning than Clinton.

The Democrat has built a nationwide staff almost 10 times the size of Trump’s, and she and her allies have spent tens of millions more on television ads in battleground states.

Some Republican strategists are nervous about Trump’s barebones campaign and wonder if it can compete with Clinton’s massive TV ad campaign, but Trump’s camp points to tightening polls as evidence that the strategy is working.

“Hillary Clinton and her super PACs have spent over $130 million on negative political ads, and yet we are virtually tied (or better) in the most recent national polls and leading in many of the important swing states,” said Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s chief fundraiser, in a statement Thursday.

“We are very pleased he has continued to dedicate time to fundraise with the RNC to support important ground operations for the Republican Party.”

Trump threw more of his own money into his White House bid last month, though the precise amount was not revealed by his campaign. The new figures bring Trump’s total contribution to his campaign to almost $60 million so far, the campaign reported.

Trump has been gaining momentum with donors who write small checks — the kind of donations that propelled former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders — and Trump’s campaign singled out Aug. 31 as a terrific day of fundraising.

Aug. 31 was the day that Trump traveled to Mexico to meet with the Mexican president and then flew back to Arizona for a fiery evening rally in which he presented his 10-point plan for immigration.

The Trump team raised more than $5 million that day, according to the campaign.

The Trump camp did not say how much of its $90 million August haul goes into the campaign’s coffers, and how much goes to the national party and the state parties linked to the joint fundraising arrangements.

That full picture will be revealed when Trump’s financial reports are delivered to the Federal Election Commission later this month.

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Hillary Clinton