Five reasons the Trump campaign needs more money — lots more money   

Can money win an election? Not necessarily — just ask Hillary Clinton, who outraised Donald Trump two-to-one in 2016 and went on to lose anyway. That race Politico called “the most lopsided contest in modern campaign finance.”   

That doesn’t mean money isn’t important. In 2020, Biden outraised Trump by hundreds of millions of dollars, raking in more than $1 billion in campaign cash to the former president’s $774 million. Biden’s incredible haul allowed a last-minute swing-state ad blitz that may have tossed the election to Democrats.  

That could happen again; the current Democratic fundraising advantage should worry all those pulling for Donald Trump.  

The Republican National Committee raised $87 million last year and began 2024 with only $8 million in the bank. That’s a worrisome deficit; even with what was described as a slow start to the campaign, the Democratic National Committee took in $119 million in 2023 and started this year with $21 million. In addition, Biden-aligned Democrat PACs etc. entered 2024 with $117 million on hand.  

That is serious firepower.  

Since then, after Biden raised $53 million in February, the gap has likely increased. In addition, outside groups like the League of Conservation Voters and the Service Employees International Union have committed a cool billion to the Biden camp. The establishment will do whatever it takes to stop Trump.    

Money matters and raising money for the Trump campaign may prove more important this time round, for five reasons. 

First, news sites and social media platforms in his first (2016) campaign gave the refreshingly unpredictable Donald Trump almost unlimited airtime, confident the political neophyte would boost ratings — and also that he wouldn’t win. For the networks, inviting Trump to appear on air was a win-win.  

That is no longer the case. Networks in 2020 censored stories unfavorable to Joe Biden and cut coverage of the sitting president to a bare minimum. That is what they are doing again. Remember when outlets like CNN and MSNBC cut away from Trump’s victory speech after the New Hampshire primary, and started “fact-checking” the candidate’s remarks? When was the last time a major network aired a Trump rally? 

Meanwhile, as president, Biden commands the airwaves. While legacy broadcasters seem to ignore footage of Biden physically or verbally stumbling, they play up his meetings with world leaders, speeches in which he derides MAGA Republicans in the name of saving democracy, and events at which he boasts about funding he has directed to, for instance, new manufacturing facilities. 

Second, President Biden has the advantage of incumbency. Nearly every day he or Vice President Harris show up in some critical swing state handing over taxpayer money to important voter groups, ensuring their loyalty. One day it’s removing lead pipes in Black neighborhoods, the next it’s touring a unionized battery plant in Pennsylvania. 

Third, Biden and his fellow Democrats are lying about his three-year record — persistently and purposefully. He continues to boast of “creating” 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, while the number is roughly unchanged from pre-COVID times, or that incomes are going up when they have, in real terms, barely budged. His campaign folks know the sheer volume of TV ads and social media posts will work in their favor, convincing the gullible.   

Fourth, the media also lies about Donald Trump. The recent explosion over Trump’s use of the word “bloodbath” to describe what could (realistically) happen to Detroit automakers if China floods the U.S. market with EVs made in Mexico was no accident. Though Trump’s language was injudicious, the reaction was absurd. Everything Trump says is distorted to fit the narrative that he’s too dangerous to serve as president, too great a threat to Democracy. You have to have big bucks to counter big lies. 

Finally, Trump’s legal bills are staggering, more than $75 million over the past two years — and they’re not going away any time soon. Should campaign funds go to combatting Letitia James’s outrageous harassment of the former president? Should they pay to pursue perjury charges against Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis? My view is yes, if donors know that their contributions to Trump’s campaign or to his super-PACs are being used in that way. Donations to the Republican National Committee, however, should be used to promote GOP candidates up and down the ballot, and not for any other purpose.   

While money is important, the source of campaign contributions is also consequential.   

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both fighting over the “little guy” — the blue-collar non-college-educated voter who might very well determine the outcome in several highly unionized swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, and of the presidential race. 

Democrats would have you believe they represent the middle class, that Scranton Joe represents the interests of the working man, and not just the union bosses, Hollywood elites and assorted special interest groups that are essential to Biden’s coalition. However, the liberal media is pushing the idea that Trump is overly cozy with billionaires. Neither narrative is true. 

Biden took office promising to be the most pro-labor president in history and reiterates that claim at every opportunity. It turns out the union members don’t return the favor. Analyzing federal campaign information, Bloomberg reports that “Donald Trump is winning financial support from grassroots campaign contributors who work for highly unionized workplaces … [and] has far more donors than Biden from people who report working for largely blue-collar workplaces.”  

Bloomberg further notes that Biden’s “campaign lags Trump in contributions from donors with oft-unionized job titles including mechanics and truckers … [while] Biden does better among workers who self-identify as professionals — including professors, scientists and psychologists — who prefer him at rates of three-to-one or more over Trump.” 

In the 2020 race, 39 percent of Biden’s contributions came from small donors while Trump relied on those smaller contributions for 49 percent of his funds, according to Open Secrets. Given what Democrats are likely to throw at him, Trump will need those folks to show up again in 2024.  

He will need billionaires, too.  

 Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company.