Trump's cash grab from his supporters is coming at a high cost: report

According to a report from Bloomberg, Donald Trump's fundraising operation is still bringing in massive amounts of cash -- but is also spending a fortune to bring in those donations from his followers.

The report from Bloomberg's Bill Allison states that the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show that the former president's fundraising arm spent "91 cents to raise every dollar" it took in during the third quarter.

With the former president still hinting at a 2024 presidential run while he faces multiple criminal investigations and civil lawsuits, the report states the former president has stepped up his appeals for cash from small donors following the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort for stolen government documents and accusations of real estate fraud from New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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According to the report, "How much those appeals raised can’t be calculated from Trump’s filings, since he doesn’t have to itemize contributions for donors who give less than $200, and they accounted for $9.8 million of Trump’s third-quarter haul. To reach them, Trump spent $7.3 million on SMS appeals and a little less than $7.3 million on online ads. His third-biggest expense went to rentals of donor lists, which cost $2.8 million."

Allison explained, "It’s not the first time that Trump’s small-dollar fundraising operation has had low returns for its spending. In the third quarter of 2020, Trump Make America Great Again, the small-dollar donor arm of his re-election effort, spent 77 cents to raise each dollar."

While Trump's cost of raising dollars has gone up, Bloomberg also reports that Trump is sitting on a substantial amount of money should he run.

"Trump has raised $387 million and, despite the low rate of return in the third quarter, is flush with cash at a time when many of his party’s candidates are being outraised in the midterms," Bloomberg is reporting.

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