Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party surpassed President Biden and the Democrats last month for the first time this election cycle, according to campaign officials, as Biden’s fundraising pace significantly slowed from March.
Trump’s advisers have said privately that his campaign, along with the Republican Party and all its affiliated committees, raised $76.2 million in April. Biden’s campaign said Monday night that it raised $51 million in April from the Democratic National Committee — which is just over half of what it raised in March, and also a little less than it raised in February.
In filings filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, Biden’s campaign committee reported raising $24.2 million in April, compared with $43.8 million in March.
Trump’s campaign is still far behind in total cash on hand, April filings show. Biden’s campaign ended April with US$84.5 million in cash on hand, remaining practically stable compared to the previous month, while Trump’s campaign had US$48 million in net cash on hand, up from US$45 million in March .
Trump was widely expected to close the fundraising gap with Biden once he clinched the Republican nomination because he can now raise money in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, collecting checks for more than $800,000 per donor. Biden has been racking up such large checks for months with his party, building a general war fund with the Democratic National Committee and their $192 million shared accounts.
The Biden operation’s cash on hand remained steady month over month as the campaign invested in a series of battleground offices as well as an early advertising campaign.
Trump is ahead of Biden in many polls, including recent New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer polls that put the former president ahead in five of the six key battleground states. But Democrats have a significant monetary advantage, in large part because Biden, as the incumbent, was able to forge a joint fundraising agreement with the party months before Trump, who had primary opponents until early March.
Trump also continues to spend millions of dollars on legal bills, the documents show. Save America, a committee that has been used to pay its legal bills, allocated $3.3 million in April for that purpose.
The records presented Monday provide a partial view, as some of the committees do not report until July, and some details about how Trump’s money flowed among the various allied committees remain unclear. It’s unclear how much Trump and Republicans had on hand in total at the end of the month.
Still, campaign filings and statements reflect a busy month of fundraising for Trump. In early April, his campaign and party reported raising more than $50 million at a private dinner in Palm Beach, Florida.
April was a slower month for Biden, in contrast to a March packed with landmark events, including his State of the Union address and a star-studded event at Radio City Music Hall with his Democratic predecessors. The campaign and party reported raising $90 million in March.
In February, Biden’s campaign reported raising more than $53 million in its committees with the party.
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement Monday that the new numbers represented “strong and consistent popular enthusiasm.” She added: “The Trump operation continues to burn money and fall short of our growing and aggressive campaign, with no base game and no demonstrable interest in speaking to the voters they need to win.”
Later that night, the president’s supporters received a very different message in an email asking for money: “We are concerned,” it said. “We are nowhere near the amount we raised last month at this point,” the email said.
In a statement released by the Trump campaign on Monday night, he said: “The only people left in America who support the corrupt Joe Biden are out-of-touch billionaires in Hollywood, and it turns out that even they have stopped giving to one failed campaign.” The campaign added that his result “is especially remarkable when you consider that he has been confined to a courtroom for nearly nine hours a day for the past four weeks.”
Trump’s campaign itself raised $9.4 million of the total raised, mostly transfers from a joint fundraising committee that served as its main vehicle for contributions. The Trump campaign spent very little – just $5.5 million, including $1.4 million on mailings and postage, more than $600,000 on legal advice and almost $500,000 on event organization.
The Republican National Committee raised $32 million in April and ended the month with nearly $39 million on hand. The Democratic National Committee reported raising $35.5 million in April, finishing with $62 million on hand.
Save America, the committee that paid Trump’s legal fees, received a $6 million transfer in early April from Trump’s main joint fundraising committee, the documents show. It was the first transfer of this type recorded in this calendar year and the largest to date in this cycle. Since February 2023, the joint fundraising committee has sent a total of $14 million to Save America.
Save America also received $2.75 million in April from a Trump-supporting super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., and $183,000 from a new joint fundraising committee Trump has with the Republican Party.
MAGA Inc. reported raising $12.8 million in April, including $10 million from Timothy Mellon, a Wyoming businessman and heir to the Mellon banking fortune who has donated a total of $25 million to the group. Mellon also donated $25 million to a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent bid for president, according to that group’s records from April, including a $5 million contribution last month.
Biden’s campaign spent slightly less in April, shelling out $25.2 million, compared with $29.2 million in March.
Kennedy’s campaign filed its April report on Friday, days ahead of schedule, showing it had raised $10.7 million. As expected, this included an $8 million cash infusion from his running mate, Silicon Valley investor Nicole Shanahan, who has invested a total of $10 million of her fortune into the campaign since being named to the ticket. in March.
At the same time, Kennedy’s traditional fundraising appears to have remained stable in the $2 million to $3 million per month range this year. In addition to Shanahan’s contributions, the campaign raised less than $2.7 million in April, down from about $3.4 million in non-Shanahan donations in March.
But campaign spending has risen sharply in recent months as Kennedy seeks access to the ballot box in all 50 states. The campaign reported spending $6.5 million in April, including $2.2 million for Accelevate 2020, its lead ballot access consultant.
