Trump has stockpiled cash for his reelection – POLITICO

President Donald Trump’s campaign has stockpiled $33 million in his campaign account two-and-a-half years before the next presidential election, new disclosures show, and businesses linked to both the president and his campaign manager Brad Parscale are benefitting from Trump’s early efforts to build a large reelection campaign.

Trump properties were paid $150,000 by his campaign between the beginning of April and the end of June. The Trump campaign still pays to rent space in Trump Tower, and it spent additional funds for meals and lodging at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. and the Trump Doral Golf Resort in Miami during that time period.

Parscale’s consulting firm netted more than $1.3 million from the Trump campaign during the three-month period. The disclosure marked the funds as being paid mostly for “digital consulting/online advertising.” Parscale joined the Trump reelection this spring.

Trump’s campaign operation raised $18 million between April and the end of June overall, a slight decrease from the $20 million it had raised during the first three months of the year. In addition to Trump’s campaign, the president established two joint fundraising committees that raise funds that are distributed among both the campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Trump was the first president in history to file for reelection shortly after entering the White House and to create a campaign account. He’d amassed tens of millions of dollars before the midterm elections even moved into full swing, an unprecedented act for any president. The $33 million that Trump had in his bank account at the end of June put him leagues ahead of any potential presidential challengers.

The campaign spent $340,000 on legal fees during the most recent three-month period, significantly less than the $800,000 it had spent during the first three months of the year. The spending brings the Trump campaign’s total spending on legal issues for the year above $1 million.

Among the legal payments made by the Trump campaign during that time was a $48,341 payment McDermott, Will & Emery, which until June represented Michael Cohen in multiple legal investigations. The disclosure marked the payment as “legal consulting” but did not specify what the payment was for.

Trump supporters donating small amounts of money at a time continue to form the bedrock of the campaign’s financial support: Trump raised $9.6 million over three months, or roughly half of his overall fundraising haul, from donors contributing less than $200. By comparison, Trump Victory — a joint fundraising committee established with the Republican National Committee to collect big checks from wealthy Republicans — netted $4.4 million total during that time period.

But several of the six-figure donations to Trump’s campaign were made by donors with connections to the news: New York real estate mogul Stanley Chera, who is active in the city’s Sephardic Jewish community, gave $169,500 to Trump Victory on May 24th, ten days after the United States opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.

Trump’s campaign and the RNC also benefited from $65,000 in donations in May from executives at Nucor, the North Carolina-based steel producer that received a visit from Vice President Mike Pence in June. Nucor CEO John Ferriola donated $25,000 to Trump Victory on May 16th, and nine other Nucor executives made smaller donations of either $2,500 or $5,000 in late May as well. It was the first time Ferriola and the other executives had donated to Trump Victory this cycle.