Dem
51
GOP
49
Fundraising reports for April are in, and the question of which major-party candidate is doing the best has gotten a bit more hazy.
The good news for Donald Trump is that he had a better April than Joe Biden, as he and his affiliated PACs brought in $76 million as compared to $51 million for Biden and HIS affiliated PACs. However, that comes with a couple of caveats. First, $50.5 million of the $76 million came from that chichi Palm Beach fundraiser. Second, Trump has not reported his cash-on-hand total. There is no question it will be lower than Biden's ($192 million). And since Trump has a very high burn rate, it's probably way lower. And that might not be a big problem if Trump was spending the money in a constructive manner. However, as we noted yesterday, his biggest expenses are raising more funds and legal fees.
As to Biden, his $51 million is rather less than the $90 million raised in March, but the $90 million figure was goosed from the Democrats' chichi fundraiser, the one with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. If we correct for the chichi factor, it looks like Trump is pulling in around $25 million a month and Biden is pulling in around $45 million a month. Also, most of Biden's haul last month was powered by small-dollar donors. That is much more repeatable than the chichi stuff, since the fat cats' beneficence only goes so far.
Incidentally, the Trump campaign points out that Trump is bringing home the bacon despite being in court all day, 4 days a week. Maybe, but let's not forget that he is raising money off the whole martyr bit like there's no tomorrow. Plus, being in court doesn't stop him from attending a fancy dinner with millionaires and billionaires on a Saturday night. In any event, we add this because readers may think it's an important part of the story. We, however, do not think so. (Z)