Super Pacs backing Donald Trump are off to a slow and rather rocky start as they try to raise funds because the candidate’s rhetoric and policy pronouncements are still so incendiary and he has sent mixed signals about how much financial help he wants from outside groups.
Trump’s campaign war chest is dwarfed by Hillary Clinton’s, who had $42.5m in the bank at the start of June compared with her Republican rival’s $1.3m, according to the Federal Election Commission. Trump has taunted big donors repeatedly, and bragged for months that his campaign was not going to rely on them or Super Pacs, before appearing to change his tune more recently.
Several donors backing Trump told the Guardian that the candidate’s errors are piling up. “He’s got to learn not to put his foot in his mouth,” said Stan Hubbard, a billionaire broadcaster who has donated $100,000 to the pro-Trump Great America Pac. “He needs a clearer message without name-calling.” Hubbard also called Trump’s recent trip to Scotland – where he was criticized for hailing the plunge in the pound post-Brexit as good for his golf course there – a mistake. “He should have let his kids do it.”
Likewise, potential Super Pac donors say Trump badly needs to curb his bombastic rhetoric and craft a better message. Michael Epstein, who raised big money for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and plans to vote for Trump but also “hold my nose and pray”, said that he might back a Super Pac if Trump has a strong GOP convention next month and really “turns it around”. But Epstein added: “I’m less and less hopeful. He can’t get out of his own way. He’s going to have to demonstrate more presidential behavior. They’re behind the eight ball and they’ve got to move fast.”
Four key pro-Trump Super Pacs have been formally launched, but between them they have run only about $5m in ads. By contrast, the leading pro-Clinton Super Pac, Priorities USA Action, in mid-May began a massive television and digital ad blitz in key states reportedly slated to cost almost $130m.
Signs of turmoil and slow growth among the Trump Super Pacs, which unlike campaigns can accept unlimited donations, are palpable.
Texas mega-donor Doug Deason, who in tandem with his billionaire father Darwin Deason recently met with Trump, said that the candidate’s top fundraiser had signaled to them that a new Super Pac, Make America Number One, backed by hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, was deemed the “official” one. In a twist, Make America Number One will seek big checks from GOP donors who are not ready to back Trump but want to stop Clinton, according to Bloomberg.
Deason said that he and his father would probably write a check to a Super Pac but stressed that “we’re waiting to see what Sheldon Adelson does”, a reference to billionaire Adelson, who has pledged some $100m to help Trump – which Deason thinks is the amount needed for a Super Pac to really have an impact.
Adelson has been considering setting up his own Super Pac and talking to key Republican operatives about cobbling one together to help Trump, fundraising sources told the Guardian.
But the casino baron has been typically cautious and slow in opening his checkbook after at least two meetings with Trump since late May.
Adelson is said to be talking to some other wealthy donors – including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and energy investor Toby Neugebauer – about teaming up on a Super Pac, say fundraising sources.
One GOP operative with ties to Adelson told the Guardian that the casino mogul may put up his funds in installments, predicting that about half would come after Trump picks his running mate. The operative said Adelson has been pressing Trump to choose the casino owner’s longtime ally Newt Gingrich, the ex-House speaker, or another staunchly pro Israel figure who shares Adelson’s hawkish views on Israel. “Adelson is very succinct about his expectations,” said the operative.
Meanwhile, the existing Super Pacs are trying mightily with mixed success to bring in big checks. The Great America Pac, which boasts veteran GOP operative Ed Rollins as a strategist, organized two events in June to woo big donors in Dallas and New York, where a luncheon at the 101 Club was hosted by Peter Kalikow, a wealthy real estate executive and Trump buddy.
Eric Beach, the co-chair of Great America, said the Pac has raised $5m and has commitments for another $4m. The Pac has plans for a few more events to court big donors in Los Angeles and Oregon before the Republican national convention and by election day hopes to raise $150m, he said.
In June, the Pac launched a three-week, $750,000 ad buy on Fox and cable channels to promote Trump. “Donors care about a path to victory,” Beach said, adding that he expects the Pac to focus on about 10 key states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Other pro-Trump Pacs are ramping up their fundraising and ad drives.
Laurance Gay, the managing director of the Super Pac Rebuilding America Now and a former lobbyist and one-time partner of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, said it had raised $2m, most of which has paid for two TV ads.
“Our Pac is gearing up to keep Hillary Clinton’s head under water through the elections,” Gay said.
Rebuilding America Now expect to raise and spend close to $20m through the GOP convention next month and then hope to raise another $80m for the rest of the campaign season, Gay said.
The Guardian has learned that Gay and Tom Barrack, a private equity executive and old friend of Trump’s who played a big role in getting the Super Pac launched and told CNN it had $32m in commitments, met with Adelson in June to woo him but it is unclear if they will get a check. Gay said that it was no secret that “we’re well behind in fundraising”.
More broadly, veteran money man Fred Malek, who has been a top fundraiser for GOP governors, cautions that Trump’s policies and temperament pose obstacles for Super Pac fundraising Malek stresses that GOP donors and voters, “want to see a nominee who is more inclusive rather than divisive and recognizes that politics is a game of addition and not a game of subtraction.”
