Ledger · 2016 campaign · № 12

"I'm self-funding my own campaign" — he funded about a fifth of it

Broken
“I'm self-funding my own campaign. It's my money. ... I don't need anybody's money.”
Promised
, Campaign launch and repeatedly at rallies and debates through the 2016 primaries
Re-promised
12 times with a fresh deadline
Topic
Ethics & conflicts
Era
2016 campaign

What happened

Trump passively accepted small-dollar contributions from the day he announced; by May 2016 supporters had given his campaign roughly $14 million. After clinching the nomination he began fundraising in earnest with the RNC and from major donors. In the end he personally funded about 20 percent of the 2016 effort — the other 80 percent was other people's money — and by 2020 and 2024 he was running conventional donor-funded campaigns.

Sources

  1. Donald Trump's big money bait-and-switch Center for Public Integrity, Nov 1, 2016
  2. Is Donald Trump self-funding his campaign? Sort of PolitiFact, Feb 10, 2016
  3. Trump isn't paying to save his campaign CNN, Oct 28, 2016
  4. Trump Called The $10 Million A Loan. His Campaign Called It A Donation. BuzzFeed News, Jan 1, 2020