President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will spend “whatever it takes” of his own fortune if necessary to win reelection.
The video: Trump made the remarks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., before departing for a rally in Jupiter, Florida.
The president — a former celebrity real estate tycoon estimated to be worth $2.5 billion — suggested only he has “the strength” to restore order in U.S. cities beset by rioting and rising violent crime amid racial justice protests.
- “If we needed any more, I’d put it up personally, like I did in the primaries last time,” Trump said, referring to the $66 million he spent to win in 2016.
- “Whatever it takes,” he added in an unprecedented pledge for an incumbent which he later reiterated on Twitter. “We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country.”
- Trump also said the Democrats don’t have “the courage to control” violent protesters, and the party’s presidential nominee, Joe Biden, lacks “the strength” and “the mental capability.”
- “If you elected this guy, the suburbs would be overwhelmed with violence and crime,” the Republican warned, repeating a message Biden has sought to refute.
The money: Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday that Trump is considering spending up to $100 million of his own money in the final two months of the 2020 race.
- According to a Monday report by The New York Times, the Trump campaign is facing a “cash crunch” after former campaign manager Brad Parscale spent hundreds of millions of dollars on TV ads and other efforts early in the election cycle.
- Biden and the Democrats, meanwhile, raised $364.5 million in August, shattering previous monthly campaign fundraising records.
Still, the latest polls have Biden’s lead over Trump narrowing in the battleground states likely to decide the election.
- A Sept. 8 NBC News/Marist poll showed the candidates tied in Florida.
- Ahead of the 2016 election, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by many measures had a bigger polling lead in swing states than Biden now does — and out-raised Trump by $400 million — only to lose.
