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Trump campaign lines up nearly two-dozen high-dollar fundraisers for busy August
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign town hall at Ocean Center on Aug. 3 in Daytona Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)
By Sean Sullivan and
Reporter covering national politics
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Matea Gold
An editor on the national desk leading coverage of political enterprise stories and investigations
Donald Trump's presidential campaign is set to hold nearly two-dozen high-dollar fundraisers with the Republican National Committee this month, a busy press of events that will help sustain an expanding flow of contributions to his presidential bid.
Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between his campaign and the party, has 21 finance events on the books for August, according to people familiar with the schedule.
The whirlwind-pace full calendar, coming during what is typically a relatively sleepy late summer period in the political world, highlights the urgency with which Republicans are trying to keep pace with Hillary Clinton in the money chase. And it shows that there is a continuing appetite among party donors to back the billionaire real estate mogul, despite his stumbles on the campaign trail.
The chaos around Trump's campaign this week, coupled with a slew of new state polls showing him losing ground, have spurred a round of anxious calls among top party donors. Some are holding off giving as much as they had originally planned, saying they want to see him focus on policy issues before writing another check, according to people familiar with the conversations.
But so far, the campaign's robust fundraising calendar for this month has held.
The Trump Victory committee's busy month begins this evening with a fundraiser on Long Island that Trump is reportedly expected to attend. On Saturday, he is set to headline events in Nantucket and on Cape Cod.
From there, Republicans will push from one end of the country to the other, according to a calendar of events shared with The Washington Post by a recipient and confirmed by the RNC. Next week, there are fundraising events slated for Canton, Ohio, and East Hampton, N.Y.
There are two fundraisers scheduled in Wisconsin on Aug. 16 and two more in North Carolina on Aug. 18. Toward the end of the month, the focus will be on western states, with events scheduled for Napa, Calif., San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland from Aug. 29 to 31.
An Orange County, Calif., event has also been slated for Sept. 20.
Trump Victory is a joint fundraising committee that raises money for Trump, the RNC and 11 state party committees. Much of the money goes to finance the party's get-out-the-vote activities, which boost the entire GOP ticket.
Trump is getting an assist on the fundraising front from his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is set to headline many of the high-dollar events, along with Trump's children.
Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its fundraising schedule or strategy.
The busy lineup of high-dollar fundraisers this month shows the success Trump is having on the fundraising front, despite the controversies swirling around his campaign. He collected $82 million in conjunction with the RNC in July, almost matching the $90 million raised by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
The large sum was powered by a surge in small-dollar donations, as well as $16 million raised through 20 high-end Trump Victory fundraising events. Steven Mnuchin, the national finance chairman, said in an interview that the campaign would have held even more large-dollar events last month if it were not for the Republican National Convention.
Saturday's fundraiser in Cape Cod is set to be held at the Oyster Harbors home of billionaire energy executive Bill Koch and his wife Bridget. Two of Bill Koch's brothers, Charles and David, lead the influential Koch political network, which has refused to get behind Trump's campaign.
Last week, Trump claimed in a tweet to have turned down an invitation to meet with them, accusing those who did so of being "the puppets of politics."
Longtime GOP financiers Darlene and Jerry Jordan and Boston real estate developer Charles Talanian and his wife Ann are also serving as co-chairs of the Cape Cod fundraiser, according to an invitation obtained by MassLive.com.
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