Trump's fundraising numbers have Democrats 'reeling'

Former President Donald Trump's fundraising numbers are so good that many Democrats are "reeling." 

This is according to a new report from Politico, titled, Biden allies downplay Trump's fundraising advantage. But, privately, some donors are reeling.

The reader may remember that it was President Joe Biden who, not too long ago, had a significant fundraising lead on Trump. That was until a New York City jury found Trump guilty in the so-called hush-money case.

Ever since then, Trump has blown Biden away in the fundraising battle, and, in a sense, these fundraising numbers have vindicated Trump's claim that he did nothing wrong and that the Democrats have weaponized the justice system against him.

Background

Before we get to Politico's report, we'll take a quick look at the fundraising battle between Trump and Biden.

Fox News reports:

[T]he president finds himself behind in the money race for the first time in the general election campaign, with reports filed Thursday indicating that Trump and the Republican National Committee have $116.5 million in cash compared to the $91.6 million in the bank for Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

To help provide some perspective, Trump, at the beginning of April 2024, was actually $100 million behind Biden in fundraising.

Business Insider reports, "April was also a blockbuster month for Trump's fundraising efforts. He started out the month $100 million behind Biden, but by the end, his team had raised $25 million more than Biden's had for the month."

Trump's success then continued into May when, according to the outlet, "the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $141 million," while Biden and the Democrats only managed to bring in $85 million.

Trump has the Democrats "reeling"

According to Politico, Democrats are currently trying to put on a brave face in response to Trump's fundraising success, but, privately, they are "reeling" from it.

"Democrats in recent days largely downplayed Trump’s new financial lead in the same way Trump’s allies had when Biden was running ahead in the money race — saying the president would have enough money to compete," the outlet reports.

"But, privately," it adds, "several Democratic strategists and donors were reeling."

One anonymous Biden donor, cited by Politico, even went so far as to say this:

There was the strategy of raising all this money on the front end so we could have this huge edge. The whole point of it was to come out with a sizable cash advantage and, you know, we’re now even and it’s June.… I have no other word for it other than "depression" among Biden supporters.

The big question going forward, though, is whether Trump's success at fundraising is going to translate into success at the polls. Time will tell.