CNN
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Former President Donald Trump’s political campaign has raised $9.5 million in the roughly six weeks since he announced his newest White House bid, according to a source familiar with the fundraising figures.
The sum was less than the nearly $11.8 million raised by Trump entities in the six weeks leading up to the Republican Party’s Nov. 15 campaign announcement, underscoring the challenges Trump faces as he attempts a political comeback.
To boost donations, Trump’s team hired marketing agency Campaign Inbox to bolster its digital fundraising efforts, sources confirmed to CNN.
Trump’s team said the former president would have the money to run in 2024.
Political campaigns raised a total of $21.3 million in the final quarter of last year, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Tuesday. He said it proved the former president was “an unstoppable force that continues to dominate politics.”
Zhang said Trump would run “an aggressive and well-funded campaign.”
NBC first reported Trump’s year-end campaign numbers.
A new report to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night showed that Trump’s main campaign committee started the year with a little more than $3 million in available cash.
But his political operation has plenty of weapons and plenty of cash.
In all, five Trump-aligned committees have reported cash reserves totaling more than $81 million.
Two-thirds of that sum — or more than $54 million — is held in the vaults of MAGA Inc., the super PAC formed last year and run by former Trump campaign aide Taylor Budowich, which must be independent from The campaign works. However, it could spend heavily to boost the former president and dent his rivals.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 candidate who faced early attacks from Trump, has also built a sizeable war chest.
According to recent filings with the state, DeSantis’ political operation — which is split between two Florida-based commissions — has more than $75 million left in his coffers after the 2022 midterm elections. The Florida Republican broke fundraising records last year as he won a second term, raising more than $163 million for his Friends of Ron DeSantis state political committee and another 5,000 through his campaign. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.
DeSantis has yet to announce his candidacy for the White House, but CNN has previously reported that DeSantis’ political operations are exploring ways to shift funds from state political committees to federal committees that could support a presidential bid.
In Trump’s first major campaign event — a weekend visit to early-voting New Hampshire and South Carolina — he took aim at DeSantis, saying he was weighing the pandemic against the presidential race and criticizing governors “Infidelity” in countermeasures.
DeSantis responded by touting his strength in winning re-election last year. He won by 1.5 million votes, the largest margin in state history.
Trump is the first major candidate in the 2024 presidential race.
