Trump's small contributions have plummeted since his last campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trump's contributions from small donors have plummeted since his last White House campaign, presenting the former president with a financial challenge as he tries to keep pace with the fundraising machine Democratic funds.

Less than a third of Republican campaign contributions came from donors who gave less than $200, nearly half of all donations during his 2020 campaign, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and OpenSecrets , an organization that tracks political spending.

The total raised from small donors also declined, according to the analysis. Trump raised $98 million from these contributors through June, a 40% drop from the $165 million they contributed during a corresponding period during his previous presidential campaign.

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The decline has forced Trump to rely more on wealthy donors and the groups they support, a shift that runs counter to the populist message that propelled him to the White House. The drop in donations couldn't come at a worse time for Trump. Democrats have raised massive amounts of money from small donors this cycle. President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris have raised a whopping $285 million from these donors since April 2023, representing more than 40% of their fundraising, according to OpenSecrets data.

GOP operatives said the trend could portend trouble for the party as a whole. Trump's declining fundraising raises questions about the party's ability to continue tapping its aging base for funds. These voters often live on fixed incomes and don't have extra money to contribute to candidates, and polls have consistently found that the Republican base is aging.

Republicans have also engaged in a hyperaggressive, often combative, digital fundraising style that alienates voters, operatives said. Campaigns and committees often share or rent donor lists, leading voters to be inundated with similar solicitations that can be confusing.

Republican salesmen have mistreated our donors so much that many local donors no longer want to give to us, said John Hall, a Republican fundraising consultant and partner at Apex Strategies. If you donate to almost any Republican candidate today, within three weeks you will start receiving 30-50 text messages from other candidates you've never heard of before.

In a survey of thousands of Republican donors earlier this year, Apex Strategies found that 72 percent of Republican donors said they continued to receive text message solicitations after asking to be removed from a list.

Donors feel like they never get thanked, they feel mistreated and they don't know how to remove themselves from the lists, Hall said. This has a chilling effect on everyone’s fundraising.

Small donors are frustrated

Small donors echoed Hall's concerns. They told the AP they stopped donating to Trump's campaign because they were tired of being bombarded with donation solicitations from other Republicans, who presumably obtained the donor information of the Trump campaign. Others said they were being more careful with their political donations because of financial difficulties.

I'm tired of them asking for money, said Susan Brito, 51, of Florida, who made dozens of small donations totaling $69 in 2022 and 2023 but did not contribute this year. I'm disabled, you send me text, after text, after text.

Bill Ruggio, 70, has donated almost every month, a total of $60, to Trump's campaign in 2022 and 2023. He has contributed nothing this year, saying he has no money extra and is deeply frustrated by a barrage of text messages. messages he receives from Republican candidates and committees.

I don't even look at my texts anymore during political season. There are so many that I miss the personal aspects because there are so many political aspects, Ruggio said. It sticks in your stomach a little.

Doug Deeken, chairman of the Republican Party in Wayne County, Ohio, said such complaints are fairly common.

People are annoyed by text messages, direct mail and emails, Deeken said, his phone filled with texts from random conservative groups asking for money. It's boring. It annoys me!

The Trump campaign accuses Harris of being responsible for his abandonment

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, did not directly respond to the drop in donors, but blamed the Biden administration and Harris for a bad economy that leads people to have less money, which the President Trump understands perfectly.

Before Trump, Democrats dominated the small-donor playing field, but Trump chipped away at that advantage in 2016, turning his devoted base into small donations throughout the year. Trump raised $170 million from small donors, or about 52% of his total, according to OpenSecrets. The amount the candidates raised from small donors exceeded the $164 million that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton raised from such donors, a figure that represented just under 30 percent of her total fundraising. In 2020, Trump continued his fundraising prowess.

The problem this year, Republican officials and activists in key states said, is that persistent fundraising demands from campaigns and committees have led voters to question whether their money is actually going to Trump. One reason for this problem is that large email lists are rented out by smaller campaigns. That means a person who signed up to receive emails from Trump could receive emails from a host of Republican candidates, sparking skepticism about where their money is actually going.

This is the total number of text messages people receive and fundraising requests that come in. That creates confusion, said Shannon Burns, a prominent Republican activist in Ohio and staunch Trump supporter. Burns said donors feel bombarded by various groups' often breathless outreach efforts, prompting questions from Trump supporters. These questions were so common, he said, that at one point he started giving out the physical mailing address to which a Trump supporter could send a check.

Trump's campaign has tried to block committees from using his name and likeness in fundraising appeals.

In March 2023, the Trump campaign sent Republican digital fundraising vendors a memo stating that the former president did not allow outside groups or candidates to use his name or likeness in fundraising appeals . He also sent a cease and desist letter to key Republican committees in Washington in 2021, urging them to stop using his name in fundraising appeals.

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Trump has seen small fundraising spikes this cycle, such as in the days after his felony conviction in May and when a gunman attempted to assassinate the candidate in July. But those jolts haven't offset the steady decline in donations from people like Stephen Buckhalter.

Buckhalter, 78, retired from the insurance industry a year ago and donated $120 to the Trump campaign in 2022 and 2023. He quit this year.

The cost of living has gotten to the point where there isn't much left at the end of the month, he said. When you're paying all that extra money for food, gas, insurance, and rent, it doesn't leave much extra money at the end of the month.

Asked if his decision to stop donating meant he no longer supported Trump, Buckhalter was blunt: Hell, no.

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