Warning signs have emerged in the political campaigns for both President Joe Biden and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, according to the latest campaign finance report filings.
Those reports showed that Biden’s fundraising dropped last month nearly across his entire political operation. That could be a major problem for a candidate who, even though he’s the incumbent, is trailing his competitor in many major polls and struggling to drum up enthusiasm among supporters.
At the same time, the reports show that Trump’s campaign increased its fundraising efforts, but brought in only slightly more than it did in previous months. At the same time, the Republican National Committee has had huge expenses related to the former president’s legal bills.
Biden’s campaign reported that it brought in $51 million total in April, which came from the Democratic National Committee and other joint fundraising committees. That’s a significant drop from the $90 million in brought in during March, which was boosted by many events the president held after the annual State of the Union address.
According to the campaign, it still has $192 million cash on hand, which is close to the same amount for March.
The Biden campaign has $84 million in its campaign account, and Trump’s campaign has only $49 million in its account.
In a statement, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said:
“April’s haul reflects strong, consistent grassroots enthusiasm. Trump’s operation continues to burn through cash and lag behind our growing and aggressive campaign, with no ground game and no demonstrable interest in talking to the voters they need to win.”
Spending for the Biden campaign dropped slightly in April to $25 million, with payroll increasing to almost $3 million and advertising spending going down a bit. Biden’s campaign employs more than 250 million people, which is nearly four times as much as the Trump campaign does currently.
Presidential campaigns have to file monthly reports to the Federal Election Commission about their finances. Joint fundraising committees — which actually end up raising a majority of the money for campaigns — aren’t required to file those reports until July, though.
Earlier in May, the Trump campaign told donors that the entire operation, which includes the RNC, raised $76 million during the month of April. Those numbers won’t be able to be verified until the reports are filed in July.
In a statement released Monday night, the Trump campaign touted those numbers compared to the haul the Biden campaign brought in. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said:
“President Trump and the RNC significantly outraised Biden and the Democrats in the month of April, thanks to the support of millions of small-dollar donors from every state across the country. President Trump’s fundraising haul over Biden is especially remarkable when you consider he has been confined to a courtroom for nearly nine hours a day over the past four weeks.”
In addition to its fundraising haul, the Trump campaign reported that it spent only $5.5 million in April, with $550,000 going to payroll and $1.4 million in direct mail costs.
