The Note: Money Matters
— -- NOTABLES
--CLINTON CLOBBERS TRUMP IN FUNDRAISING: Donald Trump was considerably out-fundraised by opponent Hillary Clinton last month as he kicked off his general election campaign, ABC’s ALANA ABRAMSON and CHRIS GOOD note. Financial disclosure documents show Hillary Clinton raised $19.7 million in May, although her campaign said she had raised millions more through a joint effort with the Democratic National Committee -- a separate venture that was not required to disclose its May totals by the same deadline. Clinton has $42 million in cash on hand. Trump's fundraising efforts brought in $3.1 million in May, according to new financial disclosure reports, while the candidate loaned his own campaign $2.2 million. Trump has approximately $1.3 million in cash on hand. The Republican National Committee took in about $13 million last month, on par with what it raised in April, before the Republican party had a presumptive nominee. http://abcn.ws/28Ptps5
--NOT-SO-FUN FACT FOR TRUMP courtesy of ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ: On Monday alone Clinton raised at least $4.5 million from three fundraisers in New York City. That's $1.4 million more than Trump raised all last month.
--FLASHBACK: At this point in the 2012 cycle, Mitt Romney had raised $23.4 million. At the same point in 2008, John McCain had raised $21.5 million. Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich, all of whom have suspended their presidential campaigns, had more cash on hand at the close of this reporting period than did Trump. http://abcn.ws/28Ptps5
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Where does Donald Trump go to get his base confident about his campaign? Not in internal management, with his campaign manager now out, the victim of an internal turf war that involved Trump’s three oldest children. Not in his fundraising report, a measly document that would have set a new low this century for a major-party candidate at this stage in the cycle if not for another personal contribution he made. And not in campaign messaging that hasn’t evolved since the distant primary phase, when insults and racially tinged remarks drew bold headlines. All three elements will prove difficult to fix. But none might be as devastating as anemic fundraising, so long as big donors either sit on the sidelines or mull their options in congressional races. Those desperate to block Trump’s nomination before the convention have the fodder they need, just not a winning strategy or mechanism – at least not yet.
--HAPPENING TODAY -- CLINTON TO DELIVER ANTI-TRUMP ECONOMIC SPEECH: Hillary Clinton is back in Ohio today where she's set to deliver part one of an economic speech in which she'll go after -- who else? -- Donald Trump, ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ reports. According to Clinton's senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan, the presumptive Democratic nominee's remarks will be similar in message to her recent national security speech in San Diego where she cast Trump as "dangerous" and "temperamentally unfit" to be president. "In Columbus, Hillary Clinton will outline this core proposition," Sullivan said about today's speech, "If we were to put Donald Trump behind the wheel of the American economy, he would very likely drive us off a cliff and working families would bear the brunt of the impact in terms of lost jobs, lost savings, and lost livelihoods." On Wednesday, Clinton is expected to deliver part two of her economic speech, which, according to aides, will be more policy-focused.
--GOP PRE-BUTS CLINTON SPEECH: The Republican National Committee is out with a new research piece today titled, “Clinton's Double-Down Economics.” An excerpt: “Hillary Clinton's economic policies amount to nothing more than four more years of Obama's failed tax and spend agenda, with tax increases that would further harm economic growth and hurt Americans' incomes. Clinton has repeatedly pledged to fully pay for at least $1.3 trillion in new federal programs and increased spending, but her tax increases fall over $1 trillion short of that total.” FULL MEMO: http://bit.ly/28MFgYT
THIS MORNING ON ‘GMA’: DONALD TRUMP JR. ON LEWANDOWSKI FIRING: 'THINGS HAD TO CHANGE': Donald Trump Jr. said today "things had to change" in his father's campaign before the general election, explaining Monday’s firing of Corey Lewandowski, ABC’s RYAN STRUYK notes. "No, he didn't see this coming," he said of Lewandowski, adding that he wasn't physically escorted from the building. "There was nothing malicious or vicious about it." “There does have to be a transition to the general," Trump Jr. said on "Good Morning America." http://abcn.ws/28Oqz57
YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
TRUMP TO LEWANDOWSKI: YOU’RE FIRED. Donald Trump fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski yesterday. "The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication, and we wish him the best in the future," according to a statement from Trump's spokeswoman Hope Hicks. ABC’s JOHN SANTUCCI and CANDACE SMITH report, Lewandowski was fired during a meeting Monday morning with the candidate and campaign leaders at Trump Tower in New York City. A senior Trump aide told ABC News that Lewandowski's firing "was a long time coming" and that the campaign "need[ed] to get everyone on the same page." http://abcn.ws/28JbNPZ
--LEWANDOWSKI SPEAKS -- PART I: Lewandowski, in an interview with CNN said that he didn’t know why he was fired. "I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. But what I know is what we've been able to achieve in this election cycle has been historic,” he said. He told CNN that Trump called him to inform him of the decision and confirmed that he had been escorted out. "But it wasn’t security- it was a friend from the office,” he said. http://abcn.ws/28JbNPZ
--LEWANDOWSKI SPEAKS -- PART II: Lewandowski told ABC’s TOM LLAMAS that there is no truth to rumors that his departure was, in part, the result of rifts with members of the Trump family. Lewandowski said he has a “great relationship” with Trump children -- Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump. "I’ve got a great relationship with them...I don’t think that’s going to change just because my position’s changed," he said. He called his time with Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a "great opportunity.” http://abcn.ws/28L2OQ6
--TRUMP TALKS: Trump called Lewandowski a "good guy" but said that "it's time now for a different kind of campaign" in an interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" last night. Trump complimented his former campaign manager while speaking with host Bill O'Reilly and called Lewandowski a "friend," but said his being let go was necessary because of changes in his campaign, ABC’s CORINNE CATHCART notes. "He did a great job," he said. "But we’re going to go a little bit of a different route from this point forward. A little different style. He’s a good guy." http://abcn.ws/28Oqz57
--BACKSTORY: Relations between Lewandowski and other members of the campaign and Trump family had been steadily growing more and more contentious, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH and JOHN SANTUCCI report. Sources told ABC News that Lewandowski had been suspected of hatching a plot to leak malignant stories about Jared Kushner, husband to daughter Ivanka and a growing and powerful voice within the campaign. Lewandowski denied any such plan in interviews on Monday and told ABC News that he has a “great relationship” with Trump children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump. Staffers privately complained about Lewandowski meddling in campaign operations, making it difficult to complete tasks and hire more people. Sources within the campaign tell ABC News that the impetus to fire Lewandowski came from perhaps Trump’s most trusted advisors; his children. But senior aides stressed to ABC News that the firing was not in response to any recent events but had been a growing murmur for months. Lewandowski’s famous slogan, “Let Trump be Trump” is how he operated. Many within and outside the campaign long accused him of enabling some of Trump’s more divisive and controversial positions, including Trump’s remark that an American judge presiding over one of his cases couldn’t be impartial due to his “Mexican heritage.” http://abcn.ws/28JO00w
POLLING NOTE: CLINTON LEADS IN NEW MONMOUTH POLL. In a Monmouth’s poll release yesterday, Hillary Clinton is at 47 percent with a seven-point lead over Donald Trump at 40 percent, ABC’s NOAH FITZGEREL notes. This is not a statistically significant change since Monmouth’s last poll in March, when Clinton led Trump by 10 points. When third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are added to the mix, Clinton leads at 42 percent, Trump at 36 percent, Johnson with 9 percent, and Stein at 4 percent. Americans are nearly split on an assault weapons ban, however, with 52 percent of registered voters supporting a ban on the sale of such weapons and 43 percent opposing such a ban.
TRUMP CONTRADICTS PREVIOUS STANCE ON GUNS AT NIGHTCLUB. Trump tweeted yesterday that he "obviously" meant that additional guards or employees should have been armed at the Orlando nightclub where a shooter killed 49 people June 12. Trump's latest comment clashes with a number of his previous remarks about the shooting at Pulse nightclub. For example, Trump said on Friday night, "If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here — right to their waist or right to their ankle — and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes 'boom, boom,' you know, that would have been a beautiful sight folks." ABC’s RYAN STRUYK has more. http://abcn.ws/28IRVgb
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
TEEN WHO TRIED TO GRAB COP’S GUN WANTED TO ‘KILL TRUMP.’ The teen arrested for allegedly trying to grab a cop's gun at a Trump rally over the weekend in Las Vegas told investigators he wanted to "kill Trump," federal court documents say. According to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Michael Sandford approached a uniformed officer who was assigned to the event -- protected by Secret Service -- on June 18. "Sandford began a conversation with the officer under the pretense that he was seeking an autograph. During the conversation, Sandford attempted to disarm the officer," the statement said. The incident is now being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. ABC’s GENEVA SANDS has more. http://abcn.ws/28LfVyH
WHO’S TWEETING?
@ryanstruyk: Donald Trump on 5/7 in Spokane, Washington: "These are statisticians. The world’s most boring job. How would you like to be a statistician?"
@JECarter4: I love how everyone is pretending Lewandowski was the problem in Trump's campaign even though every other Trump company is run the same way.
@jpaceDC: According to Trump NDA obtained by @AP, Trump has broad control over what constitutes breach of agreement @ChadSDay https://t.co/NA1cCTom2Z
@mikememoli: .@VP: "There are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world. Some of the rhetoric I’m hearing sounds designed to radicalize all 1.4 billion."
@GeraldFSeib: Three things Trump would need to win in November: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-an-improbable-trump-victory-could-happen-1466440481 … via WSJ http://on.wsj.com/28Kz7uP
