Trump insiders worry as critical small-dollar donors abandon his campaign: report

While Donald Trump's team may be courting big-dollar donors like Elon Musk to catch up with President Joe Biden's war chest, the warning bells are sounding for an erosion in small-dollar donors.

Trump's campaign team is quietly vexed about the lack of the smaller donors that buoyed the former president to the White House back in 2016, according to a CNBC report that cites members of Trump's inner sanctum.

Trump’s campaign reported raising just $3 million from small-dollar donors in January this year — those that give $200 or less, the outlet reported citing OpenSecrets. For 2023, Trump’s reelection campaign reports raising 62.5% less money from small-dollar donors than it did in 2019.

What's more, the same sources are saying that there may be little that can be done by Trump or his campaign to win back the pool of donors.

One of the factors hamstringing the former president is his schedule conflicts, a Republican fundraiser and Trump ally told CNBC.

Trump “has to be at the event [in order to raise money]. How do you get there if you’re in court?” asked the source. “The enthusiasm for voting for him is there."

"Maybe the enthusiasm in terms of giving may not be there.”

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Though he lost in his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump secured $378 million in small-dollar contributions making up half of Trump's total cash.

Trump’s campaign, however, pointed to February 2024. With former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley still in the race until she bowed out on Super Tuesday, his campaign boasted its strongest support so far in the 2024 campaign cycle for small-dollar donations.

The pinch on the purse, sources told CNBC, may also have some ties to Trump's concerns over the Republican National Committee's shifting paradigm — that it would seek to fund Trump's mounting legal fees and steer away from helping to elect into office other Republicans.

Nonetheless, after Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee, she claimed its “largest digital fundraising weekend since 2020.”

It's unclear if that momentum can continue, with a source telling the outlet: “New leadership at the RNC was a massive day. Then it’s back to making a little bit."