SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-06-23
The 2020 Donald Trump presidential campaign is an ongoing re-election campaign by President of the United States Donald Trump, who took office on January 20, 2017.
Donald Trump began his reelection campaign unusually early for an incumbent president. He began spending his reelection effort within weeks of his election and officially filed his campaign with the Federal Election Commission on the day of his inauguration. Since February 2017, Trump has held several rallies and fundraisers for this campaign. He has visited key electoral states. The campaign has raised funds and ran two nationwide advertising campaigns. Trump has confirmed in several stump speeches that the slogans for the 2020 race will be "Keep America Great" and "Promises Made, Promises Kept."
On November 7, 2018, Trump confirmed that Mike Pence would be his vice presidential running mate in 2020. On June 18, 2019, Trump held an official campaign launch event at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.
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In April 2017, The Wall Street Journal determined that the Trump campaign had reported spending nearly $500,000 in payments to companies owned by Trump, amounting to more than 6% of the $6.3 million that the campaign reported spending. Additionally, the campaign spent more than $4 million on memorabilia (such as hats).
In the third quarter of 2017, the Trump campaign spent $4.1 million (27% of its expenditures) on legal fees, including the personal legal expenses of Trump and his family. By this point, 10% of the campaign's overall spending since the beginning of the year had been on legal fees.
As of March 2019, Trump's campaign had spent almost twice as much on Facebook and Google ads as the entire Democratic field combined.
In its first two years since it was launched in January 2017, the Trump 2020 campaign paid more than $890,000 in rent for space in Trump Tower, and the Republican National Committee paid $225,000.
Between January 2017 and March 2020, Trump's reelection committees paid $38.9 million to companies owned by Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale. In the analysis of Democratic political consultant James Carville, "They're all just fleecing the campaign ... Everybody is trying to take everything they can get on the way out." Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson, noting that Parscale bought a Ferrari, a Land Rover, a waterfront house and a yacht, said that the campaign's leaders "are taking Donald Trump to the cleaners."
In April 2020, it was revealed that Brad Parscale was paying $180,000 per year to Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., and another $180,000 per year to Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump. Parscale was paying them through his company, not through the campaign or the party. "I can pay them however I want to pay them," Parscale told reporters. Two anonymous Republicans in the White House suggested that the payments were deliberately made this way so that the campaign didn't have to report them. Paul Ryan, an expert on campaign finance with the watchdog group Common Cause, said, "It's donor money." Stuart Stevens, a top aide in Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, accused Parscale of being "a money launderer."
On January 23, 2019, the Republican National Committee, in a unanimous vote, informally endorsed the president.
Super PACs supporting Trump's reelection campaign include Committee to Defend the President, Great America PAC, and Great America Committee.
The Great America PAC received donations from, among others, former racer Walker Evans and Insperity executive Jay Mincks.
The Committee to Defend the President super PAC received contributions from, among others, Enterprise Products executive Ralph S. Cunningham.
The Center for Public Integrity published an analysis of 2017 first-quarter federal campaign spending records which revealed that two Super PACs supporting Trump, Great America PAC and Committee to Defend the President, had spent a combined $1.32 million on the 2020 election campaign. Ted Harvey serves as the Chairman of the Committee to Defend the President. Eric Beach and Ed Rollins serve as co-Chairmen of Great America PAC. Both PACs have previously been accused by the FEC of poorly maintaining financial records, and had been threatened with penalties. The Center for Public Integrity also found that several other pro-Trump PACs had already been founded in 2017, but most of them had yet to be very active. One such PAC was America First Action, which was founded by the CEO of a political consulting firm for which Trump's 2020 campaign treasurer is the senior vice president.
On May 17, 2017, Mike Pence filed FEC paperwork to form Great America Committee, a PAC that would be headed by his former campaign staffers Nick Ayers and Marty Obst. This is the first time in US history that a sitting vice president has founded such a political organization.
On August 7 [2017?], Marc Lotter, a spokesperson for Mike Pence, confirmed to MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that the vice president had hosted Republican donors, including mega-donors Charles and David Koch, at Number One Observatory Circle.
At the end of the third quarter, the FEC calculated that in 2017 super PACS and other outside groups supporting Trump had spent more than $2 million.
Table displays the amount that groups have reported to the FEC they have spent in support of Trump's candidacy (As of June 2020)
| Group | Amount |
|---|---|
| The Committee to Defend the President | 10,238,007.24 |
| Great America PAC | 9,040,257.11 |
| Other | 4,250,388.10 |
| Total | 23,528,652.45 |
In late January 2017, several members of Trump's 2016 campaign staff formed America First Policies, a pro-Trump political nonprofit. Those involved included former deputy campaign chairs Rick Gates and David Bossie. Brad Parscale and Katrina Pierson were also involved. Additionally involved were Nick Ayers and Marty Obst, both of whom served as advisors to Mike Pence during the 2016 campaign. Trump's former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh has also joined the organization. Near the end of May 2017, members of the organization (including Walsh) participated in meetings at the RNC's D.C. offices with members Trump's family to discuss campaign strategy.
In 2017, Matt Braynard, a key member of Trump's 2016 campaign staff, established the organization Look Ahead America. The organization has taken steps to target inactive voters in places such as New Hampshire. Trump came close to winning New Hampshire in the 2016 election. Look Ahead America has claimed that it will not be coordinating their efforts with the President.
In August 2018, a group called the 45 Alliance was formed. All three of the group's officers [Jamie Burke, Richard Dearborn, Josh Pitcock] had served on Trump's transition team, and two of them [Dearborn and Pitcock] also served in Trump's White House. During the calendar year in which the 45 Alliance was formed, it was entirely funded by Trump for America, a nonprofit that supported Trump's transition ($150,000); by America First Policies ($150,000); and by the Republican National Committee ($75,000). Neil Corkery is in charge of the 45 Alliance's finances. "He has ties to several high-profile dark money operations," Walker Davis wrote, "like the Wellspring Committee and the Judicial Crisis Network. In 2018, an anonymous million dollar contribution to President Trump's inauguration was linked to him [Neil Corkery]."
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