President Donald Trump’s campaign lost a crucial fundraising battle in August to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, this time by a whopping $154 million.
The campaign announced its figures on Wednesday saying that the campaign and the Republican National Committee brought in $210 million during August. But that figure is dwarfed by Biden and the Democratic National Committee, who collected $364.5 million in the same period.
In a statement, the Trump campaign said that they received a massive cash influx during the Republican convention and that they brought in $76 million over a four-day period. They also said that August was their largest fundraising month on record.
Trump Campaign manager Bill Stepien said, “Both campaigns are raising massive amounts of money, but have very different priorities about how to spend it. In addition to advertising, President Trump’s campaign has invested heavily in a muscular field operation and ground game that will turn out our voters, while the Biden campaign is waging almost exclusively an air war. We like our strategy better.”
Trump beat Biden in fundraising in July but the gap between those figures was much smaller — Trump and the RNC brought in $165 million while Biden and the DNC brought in $140 million.
Trump has said that he is willing to spend his own money in order to win re-election, telling reporters this week that he will spend “whatever it takes” to win.
After reporting note that Trump’s campaign has tightened their spending, Trump said, “My campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and fake news concerning our handling of the China Virus.”
My Campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and Fake News concerning our handling of the China Virus. Now they see the GREAT job we have done, and we have 3 times more than we had 4 years ago – & are up in polls. Lots of $’s & ENERGY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2020
August was a big month for the Biden campaign — early in the month, he announces Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. He has also begun public campaign events, venturing out of his Delaware home where he spent much of the pandemic.