President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee announced on Wednesday that they raised a combined $210 million in August, falling far short of matching Democratic challenger Joe Biden's record-breaking haul of $364.5 million for the month.
Both candidates saw a bump in fundraising during August, when the two parties held conventions to rally support ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Trump is trailing former Vice President Biden in nationwide opinion polls as voters consistently say they are dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden and the Democratic National Committee announced their August fundraising total last week, which was the most ever raised by any presidential candidate in a single month.
As well as drawing donations during the Democratic Party's virtual convention during the month, Biden's nomination of California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee generated enthusiasm. Harris is the first Black woman and the first South Asian American on a major party's U.S. presidential ticket.
Trump's re-election campaign raised $76 million over the four-day Republican National Convention, part of which was held at the White House, the campaign said.
Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, said in a statement that the campaign was focusing on its 'ground game' and had 2,000 staff on the ground.
'In addition to advertising, President Trump's campaign has invested heavily in a muscular field operation and ground game that will turn out our voters,' Stepien said.
Cash crisis: Donald Trump's campaign was far outraised by Joe Biden's in August with the Democrats now $150 million up on the Republicans. It took the Trump campaign a week to admit the massive gap
Trump said on Tuesday he's willing to spend millions of dollars of his own money in his re-election bid as his campaign argues the president could win a second term in a landslide.
Trump confirmed a Bloomberg News report that he could spend as much as $100 million of his own money to beat Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November.
'If I have to, I will,' President Trump told reporters before he boarded Air Force One for a trip to Florida. 'We needed to spend more money up front because of the pandemic and the statements being made by Democrats, which we are, again, disinformation.
'Whatever it takes, we have to win,' he added.
He noted he spent his own money in the 2016 Republican primary contest - a total of $66 million.
'If we need anymore, I'd put it up personally. Like I did in the primaries last time. In the 2016 primaries I put up a lot of money. If I have to, I'll do it here. But we don't have to, because we have double and maybe even triple what we had a number of years,' he said.
Trump's comments come amid reports his campaign is struggling financially. It has yet to release its August fundraising numbers after Biden reported raising a record $365 million last month.
Campaign manager Bill Stepien did not deny the reports of money problems.
'We are now carefully managing the budget,' he said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. 'I consider it to be among the, if not the most important tasks for any campaign manager, creating a recreating the budget was the first thing that I did.'
He also said money is not the only factor.
'If money was the only factor determining winners and losers in politics, Jeb Bush would have been the nominee in 2016. And we'd have a second President Clinton right now in the Oval Office,' Stepien said.
'Candidate Trump was outspent $1.2 billion-$646 million in 2016. So just keep that in the back of your minds,' he added.
On the conference call, officials with the campaign outlined seven scenarios of how the electoral college could play out on November 3 - all of which have Trump winning a second term.
Biden is leading in most national polls on the race.
'This very much is a series of state based campaigns,' Stepien said of the Trump campaign tactics, comparing it to running for governor.
'We very much want to be on the local news in markets, six o'clock local news and markets, and our focus a whole lot less on the cable news with our messaging,' he added.
Cash spree: Brad Parscale, the fired campaign manager, is facing questions over lavish spending on everything from branded M&Ms to an $11 million Superbowl ad
The first scenario had the president winning the same states he won in 2016 for 306 electoral votes - it takes 270 to win the presidency.
But the second scenario argued Trump could win in a landslide, picking up all the battleground states for 356 electoral votes - that would be a sweep of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
'The reality is almost every state. On this map is currently within the margin of error and outside forces can change things as we see in presidential campaigns,' said Director of Battleground Strategy Nick Trainer although he conceded the campaign is not there 'yet.'
But other scenarios showed a closer race with Trump picking up just the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
The general point being made by the campaign was that Trump could afford to lose a mix of the battleground states - including Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - yet still be elected to a second term.
The cash crunch may overshadow the campaign's confidence.
GOP strategist Ed Rollins accused Parscale of spending 'like a drunken sailor.'
'If you spend $800 million and you're 10 points behind (in the polls), I think you've got to answer the question, 'What was the game plan?' Rollins told the Times.
Parscale's tenure saw more than $350 million of the $800 million spent on fund-raising operations to find donors.
Many of the specifics of the campaign spending are unclear, according to the Times, which said that since 2017 the RNC has routed $227 million through a limited liability company linked to senior Trump officials.
The firm, American Made Media Consultants (AMMC), has placed television and online adverts and allegedly made payments to Lara Trump, wife of the president's son Eric, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Fox News host and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.
The Trump campaign has been contacted with regards to the allegations, which are the subject of a Federal Election Commission complaint.
Another $39 million has been paid to Parscale Strategy LLC and Giles-Parscale, run by Parscale since 2017.
Parscale told the Times that he had 'no ownership or financial interest in AMMC and that he had 'negotiated a contract with the family for 1 percent of digital ad spend and after becoming campaign manager took no percentage.'
He also said that his spending was 'under the very close eye of the family' or 'in partnership with Ronna McDaniel (the RNC chairwoman).'
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