You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

Is Donald Trump actually running for president?

Ralph Freso/Getty Images

As Josh Marshall noted a week ago, Trump has only the semblance of a real campaign. The numbers back that up, according to reports filed last night to the Federal Election Commission. Trump has $1.3 million in cash on hand, after bringing in a meager $3.2 million in donations in May and personally loaning his campaign $2.2 million. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has $42 million on hand, after raising $28 million in May.

Other head-to-head comparisons do not bode well for Trump. He has 70 staffers nationwide, compared to 700 for Clinton. She and her allies have spent $26 million in advertising in the month of June; he has spent none, while his allies have spent less than $2 million. Clinton’s ads have attacked Trump for being incompetent, prejudiced, and a fraud, and they are coming in a crucial post-primary period, when the two parties’ presumptive nominees try to define one another for a national audience.

Trump was able to rely on Twitter and cable television to fuel his primary campaign. But primaries are much smaller affairs, involving hard-core voters who are familiar with the candidates and well-versed in the issues. A presidential campaign is tied to hundreds of other races, and is geared toward voters who show up at the polls once every four years. So far, it appears Trump is not running that kind of campaign.