Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign rally Sunday in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
(Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump reported Sunday that he raised $13.6 million for his presidential campaign, but most of it — $10.8 million — came from loans he made to his campaign.
The Trump campaign's fourth-quarter report to the Federal Election Commission showed that the New York entrepreneur had spent $6.8 million in the final quarter of 2015, leaving him with $6.96 million in cash on hand.
Trump's $2.8 million in third-quarter donations pales in comparison to the contributions collected by other candidates. For example, his closest GOP rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), raised $20.5 million during the quarter. Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson reported $22.6 million in donations in the last three months. Meantime, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, told reporters that his campaign raised more than $20 million in January alone. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, brought in $7.1 million in the last three months of 2015, just over half of what his campaign raised during the previous quarter.
Trump has built popular support through the free attention his flamboyant campaign has received from local and national news organizations, to the frustration of his competitors. His loans to his campaign have been a hallmark of the Trump operation in 2015. To date, he has lent his campaign $12.6 million and donated $218,000.
The fourth-quarter filing showed that the Trump campaign spent $1.9 million on consultants, $450,000 on payroll and $897,735 on travel. Cruz reported spending $1.35 million for consultants and $595,000 for travel. Cruz's payroll expenses in the quarter totaled $840,000. The donation and spending figures for Trump and other presidential candidates were contained in the final 2015 reports that were filed before midnight Sunday.
Tom Hamburger covers the intersection of money and politics for The Washington Post.
