Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has raised a cumulative $14 million as of March 31, 2023, most of the candidates currently running in the Republican presidential primary.
The chart below shows total receipts, contributions, and disbursements for each candidate’s principal campaign committee. It only includes candidates who announced their campaigns before March 31, and does not include candidate-affiliated PACs.
Since his indictment by the New York grand jury related to the hush money payments by Stormy Daniels, Trump had raised well over $18 million to Trump’s political entities in the first quarter and the month of April. The Trump campaign had over $13 million on hand before the end of March.
“If media leaks are correct, this could be the last time I write to you before a possible indictment comes down,” Trump said prior to his indictment.
The former president is currently the frontrunner in the Republican Party, seeking to re-gain the presidency after losing his bid against incumbent President Joe Biden.
Biden is currently facing a 40% approval rating as he is expected to announce a run for a second term in the coming weeks.
As Trump is on top of the polls for the primary as President Biden is currently neck-and-neck with Trump in the polls. The incumbent president is only facing a 26% approval rating from independent voters.
In reports to the FEC, political campaigns must distinguish between receipts and contributions. All contributions are receipts, but not all receipts are contributions. Receipts is a broad term referring to all money that goes into a campaign account. While contributions from individuals often make up the majority of a campaign’s contributions, money can also come from other sources such as loans taken out by the campaign, dividends or interest on loans or investments made by the campaign, transfers of money from other political committees, and offsets to a campaign’s expenditures in the form of rebates or refunds.
According to the FEC, other GOP primary candidates report receipts where business person Vivek Ramaswamy raised $11 million, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley raised $5 million, and former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton raised $7,717.
Contributions from individuals make up a majority of Haley’s (64%) and Stapleton’s (100%) receipts. A majority of Trump’s receipts come from transfers from other political action committees (97%), and a majority of Ramaswamy’s receipts come from loans from the candidate (90%).
The following chart shows fundraising for major presidential campaigns broken out into contributions, transfers from other political committees, loans, offsets to expenditures, and miscellaneous receipts.
This week, former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder announced his run for president in the Republican primary as the GOP primary has expanded.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to announce his candidacy for President of the United States in the Republican Primary.
Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., spent $1.5 million on TV production and advertising attacking DeSantis on his record on social security, Medicare, and the retirement age during his time in Congress.
A Pro-Trump super PAC had filed an ethics complaint against the Florida governor for “shadowing a presidential campaign” since DeSantis has not declared running for president.
“DeSantis leads the fight against the Woke Left, but Trump wants him removed from office because DeSantis’ book outsold Trump’s book,” a Trump staffer said to the media.
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