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I am Kaylee Liones here on Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio, where we brought you the news earlier this week from the Harris campaign about a milestone crossed half a billion dollars fundraised since Joe Biden left the race five weeks ago, five hundred and forty million to be exact, of which eighty two million, the campaign says was raised at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
last week. Now I will note here for full disclosure, Michael Bloomberg Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, has contributed nineteen million dollars to Future Forward,
which is a flagship super pac supporting Harris. I say that as we aim here to provide you with all of the facts, and the facts are right now there is a fundraising gap between Trump and the RNC and Harris, and the DNC filing show that the Biden to Harris campaign has raised more than a billion dollars this cycle, while Trump and the RNC has raised a little north of six hundred and thirty five million dollars. And it
is to the RNC and co chair we go. Now, Laura Trump, I'm pleased to say, is joining me here on Bloomberg.
TV and Radio.
She, of course, is the co chair of the Republican National Committee. Great to have you, Laura, Welcome back to Bloomberg. Is we considered this fundraising gap, how do you aim to close it? Who do you go to?
Yeah, well, listen, I don't think we ever keep pace with Democrats traditionally as Republicans. Look, you look back at the twenty sixteen race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and she far outraised us, and we know the outcome of that election. Now. Of course, money is important. It affords us the ability to buy TV ads, to do digital advertising, to have a great ground game, and we're really proud of the number that we've raised so far. I think our most proud number may be our small
dollar digital online fundraising. We are approaching our fiftieth day of over a million dollars raised in small dollar donations. These are donations under like forty dollars on average, And I think what that says is that you have the support of the American people behind Donald Trump right now.
So we always aim to raise more money. We always try to encourage people to donate, and even in this bad economy that really is hurting so many people, we are still seeing very big fundraising numbers for Donald Trump.
Well, as you talk about the small dollar donors specifically, is that where you think more of the money you can raise will come from from the grassroots or there are other big ticket donors that you think you can pull in who may not have yet contributed to the campaign.
Oh, we do. We do have our eye on some donors who we're bringing back into the fold, or maybe some new door't I won't give any names today, but some new donors as well. Look, you've seen Donald Trump really resonate with Silicon Valley over the past six months or so, and I think he's really shaken a lot of people awake, and a lot of people are now realizing how much better off their life, their businesses, and the trajectory of this country were when he was in office.
And so you're seeing a lot of new donors and first time donors as well come in in a very big way. I do a lot of fundraising calls, I go to a lot of fundraising events, and oftentimes there are people coming up to me saying I have never been to any political fundraiser in my life. I'm here maxing out to the RNC and the Trump campaign because they want Donald Trump back in office.
Well, ma'am, of course, it's one thing to raise money. It's another to consider how to spend it, and what the strategy should be and how it should change. Now that it's Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket instead of Joe Biden, polling is consistently showing us that it does seem the map may be wider for her than it was for Biden in terms of states she could win. She of course is spending time in Georgia today. There's indications she's pulling better in North Carolina.
Do you have to rethink your allocation to some of those states, like in the Sun Belt now that it is the Harris campaign not the Biden one.
Yeah, well, listen, of course you have a different candidate. You do have to change your tactic to an extent. And we certainly are doing certain things in very specific states, and we're looking at all the same polling as well, and we're making sure that where we need to kind of firm things up, we're going to allocate a little bit more money there, We're going to put more boots on the ground in those areas. So yeah, it's a
different game. But look, I think that apparently we're going to hear from Kamala Harris herself in her first television interview alongside her running mate tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes. And I think that after the September tenth debate, I think you're going to see another shift in numbers. I think people are going to very clearly see who Kamala Harris is. She's got a lot of questions to answer.
She seems to have avoided the media very well to this point, and we really don't know where she stands on a lot of issues. And so I believe once the American people are not only reminded that she's been in office for three and a half years, that life is harder because she has been vice president as well for three and a half years, and she's got to sell the American people on four more years of this.
I believe we're going to see polling shift again. And we feel very confident all across the country that we have our eye and exactly what we need to focus on, and that indeed, Donald Trump will be reelected on November fifth.
Well, will wait and see what further detail we get from Kamala Harrison that interview tomorrow. But if I could just get some more detail from you, Laura, you are talking about identifying potentially areas in which you will now need to shift strategy and invest more resources. Could you illustrate for us where some of those areas are. Is it North Carolina? Is it Georgia? Where exactly are you now targeting to a greater degree?
Yeah, well, listen, North Carolina is definitely a state where we've seen some movement. It looked very positive for Donald Trump in whenever he was going against Joe Biden. It still shows Donald Trump up on Kamala Harris. But we want to make sure that we increase that lead, so we certainly are prepared to put more money into that state. It is my home state, and it's one that I of course want to win, and I think Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania
is a must win state. I think that you know, every election cycle we have seen consistently how important that state has become. I think the margins have tightened quite a bit there. You're going to see Donald Trump in Wisconsin coming up today, and so you know, we're making sure that everywhere that we felt very good prior to Kamala Harris being the nominee for the Democrats, we want to feel just as good on the other side of things. So we're prepared to invest wherever we need.
Well, as you look at your home state, are you worried that the gubernatorial candidate there, Mark Robinson could actually create a drag on Donald Trump's own chances to see a problematic candidate for the Republican Party.
Now, listen, I don't think you've ever seen that sort of movement for Donald Trump. In fact, I would say it's the opposite. I think that Donald Trump typically helps out the candidates in these various races, down ballot races, whether it's within the state or for the House or the Senate, and so that's not a concern at all. And I actually think you're going to look to races like you know, the race in Montana, the Senate race there,
You're going to look at Ohio and Pennsylvanian. I think you're going to see that Donald Trump is going to be a huge boost for a lot of the down ballot candidates and the races within those various states, So that's not a concern for us at all.
Well, of course, you know Donald Trump better than most people ever. Will You are not just the CoA chair of the r and C, you are also his daughter in law. And what we have heard from Donald Trump pretty consistently in recent weeks on the campaign trail is that he is hearing from people close to him, his advisors, that they want him to focus on policy less so on personal attacks. But it does seem, and he has said as much that he'd like to keep going with
the personal attacks. Do you have his ear on that, Laura, as his daughter in law as RNC co chair, do you think he should be focusing more on policy?
Well, I certainly have his ear, and he certainly asked my opinion about a variety of different things. And listen, I think that people have been very quick to criticize Donald Trump for the way he operates, and he definitely does not operate, Keyley, like a typical politician. He's still, even though he was president for four years, doesn't like
to consider himself a politician. And I actually think you look back at the twenty sixteen election, for example, Donald Trump was such a great brander of people that it really gave him an edge during the primary with sixteen other candidates, all of whom could have been great presidents or great presidential nominees for the Republican ticket. And you
look at the way that he branded Hillary Clinton. You look at the way that even in the early primaries in twenty twenty four, you saw him do the same thing with people like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. It's Donald Trump who was left standing at the end. So sometimes people don't agree with the way he operates in the beginning, but I actually think that people down the line start to realize maybe he had the right idea to begin with.
Well, something else that many may disagree with Donald Trump about is whether or not he should be willing to say now, I will accept the results of the election, whatever they are. Instead, what we have heard from him as suggestions that as long as he thinks it was free and fair, that's when he will decide. Some have read that is if he wins, he'll accept those results, especially considering that at the RNC, Laura, you are not just charged with getting a Republican elected to the presidency.
It's about the Republican Party as a whole in the balance of power in Washington, or you can that kind of rhetoric around election integrity may actually harm the Senate and congressional candidates who are trying to keep hold of the House and turn the Senate blue. What if they're able to do that and your father in law does not win, is he still going to claim that this election was not valid.
Look, I think that what you've heard from Donald Trump is if this is a fair election, which is something that I'm working on day and night at the RNC. It's the number one focus of the RNC right now. We have a huge election integrity operation because, let's be honest, half the country had a lot of questions, maybe more about twenty twenty. Those questions were never answered. People are
just supposed to forget about him. And it's paramount that in the United States of America we trust our electoral process. This is integral to who we are as a country, and so we are trying to re establish that trust.
Every day. We're doing everything we possibly can making sure that people are confident that no matter if you're voting for a Republican, a Democrat, or a third party candidate in this country, your vote matters in your vote counts, and unfortunately, we've gotten a lot of pushback from Democrat run states, and it's been very challenging to get transparency
in an issue where we really need transparency. But I believe that what we are doing right now at the RNC is going to further the notion that we do indeed have free, fair and transparent elections. And so I think Donald Trump saying if this is a free election and a fair election and there's no funny business here, is a perfectly legitimate thing to say, because again, you go ask half the country, they don't feel like everything was completely fair in twenty twenty.
All right, Laura Trump, appreciate you joining us here on Bloomberg TV and radio. The co chair of the rn C, thank you so much. And of course, for those that do still have questions about the results of twenty twenty, Joe Biden did win the election, and no court found that there was anything actually wrong with the democratic process.