On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that new filings show President Donald Trump's campaign — and the Republican Party itself — are teetering on the brink of financial oblivion.
"New filings with the Federal Election Commission showed the extent of Mr. Trump’s cash troubles, which are severe enough that he diverted time from key battleground states and flew to California on Sunday for a fund-raiser with just over two weeks until Election Day," reported Shane Goldmacher and Rachel Shorey. "The president ended September with just over half as much money as he had at the beginning of the month."
"While Mr. Trump’s campaign and its shared committees with the Republican National Committee have raised $1.5 billion since the start of 2019, the disclosures late Tuesday showed that his main re-election committee — the account that must pay for many of the race’s most important costs, including most television ads — had only a small slice remaining," continued the report. "All told, Mr. Trump’s campaign and its shared committees with the R.N.C. had $251.4 million entering October, compared with the $432 million that Mr. Biden’s campaign and its joint accounts with the Democratic National Committee had in the bank. Some joint account funds are most likely eligible to be transferred to the main campaign committee."
At the beginning of the year, Trump and the GOP had nearly $200 million more cash on hand than Joe Biden and the Democrats.
The cash crunch is leading the Trump campaign to scale back advertising, including in critical battleground states where some polls show them tied or trailing, like Ohio and Iowa, as well as states he had hoped to flip after they narrowly voted for Clinton in 2016, like Minnesota and New Hampshire.
"Mr. Trump’s campaign has been seeking to trim costs for more than two months, since Bill Stepien replaced Brad Parscale as campaign manager," said the report. "Under Mr. Parscale, the campaign spent heavily as it invested in constructing a huge database of email addresses and phone numbers to reach supporters and ask for money. But as the election neared, hopeful projections for a large uptick in contributions have not materialized."
