Will Trump pick up the 1 billion dollar tab?
Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 12:04 pm
How Trump goes from 'self-funding' to fundraising
1) Trump goes from 'self-funding' to courting cash
Donald Trump has gone from Republican presidential candidate to presumptive GOP nominee. His next transition? He'll need to go from "self-funding" to courting big money donors.
A Trump transition
Trump has said he'll have to raise at least $1 billion for the general election campaign. The real estate mogul will be in New Jersey this week, doing an event for the state Republican party, as well as for Gov. Chris Christie. Jill Colvin of the Associated Press says this will be a moment to watch: "I'll be looking at how an individual who has spent decades as a political donor is able to make that transition to somebody who actually needs to fundraise and ask other people for money."
2) The Trump camp is on the move, looking for those millions
Trump is taking his fundraising efforts on the road. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's new finance chief, spent a day in Las Vegas last week trying to line up donors for the presumptive GOP nominee. As CNN's Phil Mattingly explains, the Trump camp is playing catch up when it comes to fundraising, but Mnuchin isn't new when it comes to talking money.
"He is a former Goldman guy; he speaks their language. " says Mattingly. "He was pushing Donald Trump as someone who understands their business, who understands them ideologically. But the question remains the same: They have a ton of work to do to catch up with Hillary Clinton."
3) The anti-Trump donors have a new target, but they still don't want Trump to win
Republican donors who are still against a Trump presidency have a new attack strategy. Yes, the stop-Trump movement pretty much melted down. But those GOPers, with funds to spend, have a new target: Hillary Clinton. The groups don't want to support the Trump candidacy, but they are deciding whether they'll shell out money for ads against Clinton.
The New York Times' Alex Burns explains it's less about Trump winning and more about minimizing collateral damage if he loses.
"The idea is not to help Trump win the presidency, but assume he has already lost it and hold down her victory margin to make it easier for Republicans running for the House and Senate and a couple of key governors' races to make it across the finish line," Burns says. "It might be possible for Republicans to win some tough races in places like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire if Clinton wins the presidential by five, six, seven points."
4) Clinton has superdelegates in her corner, but that's not her only secret weapon
Even though there are 11 contests to go in the Democratic primary season, Hillary Clinton has her eyes on the general election and is laser-focused on Trump.
Her biggest secret weapon when it comes to tackling Trump is her relentless opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders. The liberal Vermont senator understands the need to defeat Trump (of course, he says the person best suited to do that is himself). Going into the fall, if Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, Sanders might ease up on his his anti-Trump message. But as CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports, the Clinton camp wants Sanders to continue his assault.
"He is going to be critical here into bringing his voters to stand up against Donald Trump," Zeleny says. "There's a lot of reason to believe he will do that. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, is very close to Bernie Sanders. So he is going to be the one sort of brokering this kind of peacemaking summit (between Clinton and Sanders), which is about a month away at least."
1) Trump goes from 'self-funding' to courting cash
Donald Trump has gone from Republican presidential candidate to presumptive GOP nominee. His next transition? He'll need to go from "self-funding" to courting big money donors.
A Trump transition
Trump has said he'll have to raise at least $1 billion for the general election campaign. The real estate mogul will be in New Jersey this week, doing an event for the state Republican party, as well as for Gov. Chris Christie. Jill Colvin of the Associated Press says this will be a moment to watch: "I'll be looking at how an individual who has spent decades as a political donor is able to make that transition to somebody who actually needs to fundraise and ask other people for money."
2) The Trump camp is on the move, looking for those millions
Trump is taking his fundraising efforts on the road. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's new finance chief, spent a day in Las Vegas last week trying to line up donors for the presumptive GOP nominee. As CNN's Phil Mattingly explains, the Trump camp is playing catch up when it comes to fundraising, but Mnuchin isn't new when it comes to talking money.
"He is a former Goldman guy; he speaks their language. " says Mattingly. "He was pushing Donald Trump as someone who understands their business, who understands them ideologically. But the question remains the same: They have a ton of work to do to catch up with Hillary Clinton."
3) The anti-Trump donors have a new target, but they still don't want Trump to win
Republican donors who are still against a Trump presidency have a new attack strategy. Yes, the stop-Trump movement pretty much melted down. But those GOPers, with funds to spend, have a new target: Hillary Clinton. The groups don't want to support the Trump candidacy, but they are deciding whether they'll shell out money for ads against Clinton.
The New York Times' Alex Burns explains it's less about Trump winning and more about minimizing collateral damage if he loses.
"The idea is not to help Trump win the presidency, but assume he has already lost it and hold down her victory margin to make it easier for Republicans running for the House and Senate and a couple of key governors' races to make it across the finish line," Burns says. "It might be possible for Republicans to win some tough races in places like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire if Clinton wins the presidential by five, six, seven points."
4) Clinton has superdelegates in her corner, but that's not her only secret weapon
Even though there are 11 contests to go in the Democratic primary season, Hillary Clinton has her eyes on the general election and is laser-focused on Trump.
Her biggest secret weapon when it comes to tackling Trump is her relentless opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders. The liberal Vermont senator understands the need to defeat Trump (of course, he says the person best suited to do that is himself). Going into the fall, if Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, Sanders might ease up on his his anti-Trump message. But as CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports, the Clinton camp wants Sanders to continue his assault.
"He is going to be critical here into bringing his voters to stand up against Donald Trump," Zeleny says. "There's a lot of reason to believe he will do that. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, is very close to Bernie Sanders. So he is going to be the one sort of brokering this kind of peacemaking summit (between Clinton and Sanders), which is about a month away at least."