WASHINGTON — Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he was struggling to rally fellow Republicans after new reports show him badly lagging Hillary Clinton in campaign cash.
Trump’s campaign started June with $1.3 million, compared with $42 million for the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Reports released Monday came hours after Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in an attempt to restart his struggling campaign.
“I’m not looking to spend a billion dollars. I need support from the Republicans,” Trump said on the Fox News Channel. “In some respects I get more support from the Democrats than the Republicans.”
He said the Republican National Committee and its chairman, Reince Priebus, “have been terrific,” but “it would be nice to have full verbal support from people in office.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee continues to face criticism from Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Although both have endorsed him, last week they condemned Trump’s renewed call to impose a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the country.
Trump’s decision to fire Lewandowski less than a month before the Republican convention sent a powerful signal that the billionaire businessman recognizes the increasingly dire state of his presidential campaign. Many in his party feel he has squandered the precious weeks since locking up the nomination.
The fundraising reports showed donors gave his campaign about $3 million in May, even though he enjoyed presumptive nominee status for almost the entire month. By contrast, Clinton, who spent all of last month fending off her primary rival, Bernie Sanders, raised $26 million.
Trump said he will not be spending as much as Clinton.
“We’re going to be running a little bit different campaign,” he told Fox News Channel. “We want to keep it lean. I’m not looking to spend all this money. She’s going to spend more than $1 billion.”
On NBC’s “Today,” Trump said he may have to tap more into his own funds. “If it gets to a point, I'll do what I did in the primaries. I spent $55 million in the primaries. I may do it again in the general election, but it would be nice to have some help from the party,” he said.
Aides also hope Lewandowski’s departure will bring an end to the infighting that has plagued the campaign since Trump hired strategist Paul Manafort in March to help secure delegates ahead of the convention. Since then, the campaign’s rival factions have been jockeying for power, slowing hiring and other decision-making. Manafort, who has long advocated a more scripted approach backed by a larger and more professional campaign apparatus, will be taking full control.
In a conference call with top aides following Lewandowski’s firing, Manafort signaled a rapid expansion would be coming soon.
“The campaign’s going to pick up the speed,” senior adviser Barry Bennett said.
But even with Lewandowski’s departure, Trump faces an uphill climb. The campaign is woefully understaffed compared to Clinton’s, and Trump has so far shown little appetite for investing in even the basic building blocks of a modern-day White House campaign.
