And I think I need a Lear jet
I have to say, anytime someone tells me he’s a successful businessman, great dealmaker, and a Billionaire I look at them like Space Aliens that have suddenly removed their Human Suits and say-
“He went Bankrupt running a Casino! A CASINO!!”
Like most Trump properties, the president’s campaign is a financial mess
by Paul Waldman, Washington Post
September 8, 2020
At the beginning of July, Brad Parscale, then the manager of President Trump’s reelection campaign, bragged that the campaign had raised $947 million and had $295 million in the bank. Despite the impressively large numbers, it meant that before the general election had begun in earnest, Trump had already spent $650 million — and left himself trailing Joe Biden in polls by around 9 points. For all the good it did him, he might as well have stuffed the cash into a rocket and blasted it into the sun.
Two months later, the Trump campaign’s situation is even worse. The New York Times reports that “some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter.”
And he still trails Biden by about the same amount; in fact, one of the most remarkable things about this race is the stability of the polls. No matter what the campaigns do or what they spend their money on or what happens in the news, the race barely changes.
Who but Trump could raise an unprecedented amount of money and then squander nearly all of it with no visible results except for perhaps a slight padding of his own bank account? What does he think this is, the Trump Soho? The Trump Tower Toronto? The Trump Plaza Casino?
You could put the blame on the realities of contemporary politics: The electorate is starkly divided, with negative partisanship keeping voters from crossing to the other party. Just as important, for four years Trump has dominated the news like no president before him. It’s not as though there are many Americans left who don’t know how they feel about him, and they aren’t going to suddenly have their minds changed by a TV ad, or a hundred ads.
You will not be surprised to learn that whatever the challenge they faced in persuading voters, the Trump campaign has wasted much of its money on things such as TV ads during the Super Bowl, a huge headquarters and high-priced consultants who no doubt are already enjoying their new luxury German sedans. The article quotes the now-deposed Parscale, who makes a point of spreading blame around to Jared Kushner and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, saying they were involved every step of the way in spending all that money.
…
As a result of his campaign’s shaky financial situation, Bloomberg now reports that Trump “has discussed spending as much as $100 million of his own money on his re-election campaign,” which borders on the preposterous. Not that he hasn’t batted around the idea — I’m sure he has — but that he would actually follow through and spend much of his fortune on the campaign.Trump may not even have $100 million to spend, at least without liquidating some of his properties. As Bloomberg notes, “Trump had between $46.7 million and $156.5 million in various savings, checking and money market accounts at the end of 2019, according to his most recent financial disclosure.”
And that’s if you believe his disclosure is not inflated to make him look richer than he is. So if he wanted to bail out his campaign with his own money, he’d have to pour most or all of his available cash into it, and what he can get from Republicans booking rooms at his hotel in Washington won’t nearly make up for it.
And what would he get for it if he did? More TV ads, more polls, more consultants, more staff salaries, more expense accounts. Would any of that make a difference?
Of course, that applies equally to Joe Biden, who has been raising money at an even faster rate than Trump; he brought in a stunning $365 million in the month of August alone. Biden’s campaign is less likely to waste its money than Trump’s is, if for no reason other than Trump surrounds himself with grifters who are always looking to skim some (or a lot) off the top. But that doesn’t mean that Biden won’t spend a lot of money on familiar campaign activities that could have little or no effect on the outcome of the race.
The 19th-century department store magnate John Wanamaker supposedly said that half of the money he spent on advertising was wasted; the trouble was he didn’t know which half. Something similar could be said of today’s presidential campaigns: Most of what they spend makes no difference at all, but they’ll still spend every dollar they can on the off chance it might move a vote.
In the end, what matters most in this election is not going to be who spends more or who comes up with the cleverest catchphrase. If Trump does lose, it will be because of the disastrous reality of his presidency. No amount of money can make the voters forget that.