Trump’s Hopes Of Erasing Biden’s Financial Advantage Rest With His Small-Dollar Army

WASHINGTON — Even as he collects checks as big as $814,600 for his campaign efforts, Donald Trump’s hopes of erasing President Joe Biden’s current financial advantage in the 2024 election likely rest with his millions of followers who over eight years have already given him $1.5 billion in small-dollar donations.

“And they’re happy to give it,” said one Trump campaign adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s fatigue, obviously. But other than Obama, he’s the best there is. Certainly the best Republicans have ever had.”

Barack Obama broke fundraising records in the 2008 presidential election and created a new paradigm for political campaigns by aggressively seeking out donors who would give $20, $10 or even $2, but would do so on multiple occasions.

Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to successfully follow that model during his 2016 run. In his 2020 reelection campaign, he raised $953 million by sending his supporters repeated text message and email solicitations, compared with $496 million from those attending expensive fundraising events.

But the coup-attempting former president continued hitting up his followers for money after losing in 2020, at first by falsely claiming he would use it for legal challenges to the election result, and then by claiming he needed it to push his agenda, even though more than $100 million of the $347 million he raised through his Save America fundraising committee went to pay his legal bills.

Trump’s 2024 campaign said it raised more than $50 million at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this month. That was followed by a $5 million event in Atlanta and an $8 million gathering in Orlando, as well as numerous smaller lunches and dinners at his