Donald Trump Says He Won’t Self-Fund General Election Campaign
The soon-to-be nominee is reneging on a core campaign tenant.
— -- Donald Trump is now the all-but-inevitable Republican nominee and he’s started his first day by announcing he will renege on one of the core tenants of his campaign. He announced this morning on "Good Morning America" that he would accept “small contributions,” and he is now telling the Wall Street Journal that he won’t be entirely self-funding his campaign.
“I’ll be putting up money, but won’t be completely self-funding, as I did during the primaries,” Trump told the WSJ.
A campaign official confirmed to ABC News, as first reported by the WSJ, that Trump will tap into his vast personal Rolodex to shore up his campaign so that it will be able to compete in a general election.
The official went on to say that the campaign will likely operate on a business model that is less expensive than traditional campaigns. Trump also announced on NBC that he hopes to raise $1 billion, working in conjunction with the Republican National Committee.
This reversal is, as Trump would say, “yuuugee.” Trump proudly boasts at almost every campaign event that he is “self funded”. But this morning he told George Stephanopoulos on "GMA" that he would take small contributions.
"We will probably take small contributions," he said. "I don't want to have anybody have any influence over me, that I can tell you."
Trump has insisted for months that he is financing his own campaign, and he has loaned himself most of the dollars he spent in the primary, though his campaign website has a prominent link at which voters can donate.
The New York businessman, who did receive some small donations, lent his campaign $36 million of the $47 million he spent through March, according to WSJ.