President Donald Trump defended his campaign following a report that his re-election effort is strapped for cash during the final months of the election.
In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump wrote, “My Campaign spent a lot of money [upfront] 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 – [and] are up in polls. Lots of [dollars] & ENERGY!”
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
The tweet is seemingly in response to The New York Times article on Monday, which noted that though Trump had raised more than $1.1 billion through July, over $800 million of that money has been spent.
The Times noted that some of the president’s war chest has been squandered on expenditures like a $10 million ad buy during the Super Bowl and more than $1 million in ads in Washington, D.C., where Trump resides.
The D.C. ad buys are particularly confusing because Hillary Clinton earned over 90% of the vote in the federal city in 2016 and it is not expected to be in play in 2020.
Trump recently shuffled his campaign staff around, demoting campaign manager Brad Parscale, who has been accused of extravagant spending and of botching a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla., where only around 6,200 people were in attendance.
Parscale was also under scrutiny for working out of his home in Florida rather than the Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia.
Parscale has been credited with being among the lead architects of Trump’s 2016 campaign, where he served as the digital media director. Bill Stepien replaced Parscale as the 2020 campaign manager.
In his Tuesday morning tweet, Trump also insisted that he is “up in the polls.” However, there are no reputable polls that put the sitting president ahead. The Real Clear Politics average gives Joe Biden a 7.1 point lead. The site has not tracked a poll that had Trump and Biden tied since April.