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Former President Donald Trump’s huge May fundraising haul erased President Joe Biden’s longstanding cash advantage as the two gear up for a rematch.
Trump’s campaign had $116.6 million in the bank at the end of May, compared to $91.6 million for Biden.
It wasn’t due to poor fundraising on the incumbent’s part — Biden’s campaign saw a decent fundraising rebound in May after a weak showing the month prior. But Trump’s fundraising while he was on trial in New York that month, punctuated in the final days when he was convicted, was enough to surpass Biden in campaign cash, something that had long been seen as a crucial strength of his.
The latest campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission also revealed how Biden has continued to build out his campaign apparatus, while Trump has largely held onto cash. And down-ballot races are also heating up, with party committees and other outside groups bringing in — and spreading around — more cash than before.
After months of a relatively sleepy start, the real money race has begun.
Those are among the takeaways of the campaign finance reports filed by presidential campaigns, party committees and a handful of other groups on Thursday. The reports covered all activity for the month of May.
Biden was counting on a cash advantage. Trump wiped it out.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said they raised $141 million in May, a figure that included the significant fundraising boost after the former president’s criminal conviction on hush money charges (The full breakdown behind that number won’t be available until mid-July, when Trump’s joint fundraising committees file their own reports.)
But the former president’s campaign filing Thursday showed a significant surge in the final two days of the month — the day the jury handed down a guilty verdict and the day after.
Just looking at large-dollar donations, the campaign reported receiving at least six times as many daily donations those two days compared to a typical day. And the fundraising spike was likely even greater, considering that doesn’t include unitemized donations of less than $200 or any donations that the joint fundraising contributions hadn’t yet transferred.
In total, Trump’s campaign and the RNC reported just over $170 million cash on hand combined at the end of May, overtaking Biden and the Democratic National Committee, which reported just shy of $157 million.
While Trump’s New York trial and conviction did drive grassroots fundraising, the strong numbers from last month also reflected traditional Republican donors ramping up their donations as the general election cycle kicked off.
The pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised nearly $70 million in May. But the bulk of that total was a single $50 million donation from Timothy Mellon, a longtime GOP donor who had already given the super PAC $25 million since the start of last year. (Mellon has also given $25 million to a super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) The super PAC also received $5 million each from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, longtime GOP megadonors.
Biden’s fundraising rebounded — but he spent far more than Trump
Biden’s operation said it raised $85 million in May across his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and two joint fundraising committees — a significant rebound from the prior month, when it raised just $51 million.
The incumbent president’s campaign also spent more than $30 million, according to its report filed late Thursday, up from $25 million the previous month and nearly four times as much as Trump’s campaign spent over the same period.
