
The presumptive Republican nominee, whose recent paltry campaign finance figures sounded an alarm about Trump’s preparedness for a gruelling general election battle, held a closed-door $25,000-per-plate breakfast at Italian restaurant Le Cipriani for major donors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A maximum of $2,700 per donor is allowed to go to the Trump campaign, with the rest going to the Republican Party.
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On Tuesday, Trump pledged to “personally” match supporters’ donations dollar for dollar for the next 48 hours, up to $2 million total.
The fundraising push follows Trump’s and Clinton’s latest filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which showed the former secretary of state’s campaign had $40 million more in cash on hand than Trump’s.
“I have a lot more than $40 million if I want to use my own money,” Trump told Fox News on Wednesday.
“I think our next numbers are going to be quite good. But, more importantly, I don’t to want raise billions of dollars.”
Trump has repeatedly knocked political rivals for being beholden to mega-donors.
“So, I can do it for much, much less and, I think, win,” he added.
His style of campaign financing has been unconventional. He has so far lent his campaign $45.7 million.
He is entitled to raise money from supporters to have those funds reimbursed, but he told MSNBC in May that he had “absolutely no intention of paying myself back.”
A substantial amount of Trump’s campaign expenses — about 20 percent in the month of May — is being shifted back to his own businesses, the New York Times reported, citing campaign finance filings and the paper’s review of the 1,699-page Trump campaign declaration to the FEC.
For example, the campaign paid $423,000 for the use of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, where he has held several press conferences.
Payments were also made to the company managing Trump’s fleet of aircraft which he has used to criss-cross the nation ($350,000), to Trump Restaurants ($125,000) and to Trump Tower ($170,000), his New York headquarters where his campaign rents office space.
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