'Nerve-Racking': Trump Outraised Biden by $81 Million Over Last Two Months

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump outraised President Joe Biden for the second month in a row in May and brought in a total of $81 million more than Biden over April and May, federal filings released Thursday show, closing a significant gap in their war chests and sparking concerns among Democratic strategists.

Trump's joint operation with the Republican National Committee (RNC) has drawn near to Biden's cash on hand, after having lagged about $100 million at the start of April. Biden's joint operation with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had $212 million cash on hand at the start of June, compared to Trump's at least $170 million, and possibly more, according toThe New York Times, which said that Biden's edge may have "evaporated."

The filings have cast doubt on the Biden campaign's contentions that it would have a large cash advantage.

"The Biden campaign and its allies had argued that for all of the president's electoral vulnerabilities—nagging inflation, poor approval ratings, lingering concerns about his age—one clear advantage would be cash," the Times reported.

Biden's supporters expressed concern that one of the president's key advantages has been eliminated.

"It's nerve-racking to see the money race even out," Jon Reinish, an establishment Democratic political strategist, told the Times. "That was supposed to be one of Biden's real advantages. He's also been spending money for months and that doesn't seem to be moving the needle much in terms of polling. Hopefully that changes as we get even closer."

The joint Trump-RNC operation raised a "jaw-dropping" $141 million in May, helped by a surge of donations in the final two days of the month following his felony conviction on May 30. The joint Biden-DNC operation raised $85 million in the month, an amount which The Associated Presscharacterized as "robust," albeit less than Trump's haul.

The AP's Steve Peoples wrote with seeming astonishment at Trump's fundraising success:

At almost any other time in U.S. history, a presidential candidate would have been forced to leave an election after being convicted of dozens of felonies. But in 2024, Trump's guilty verdict has instead fueled a massive fundraising surge that puts his team in a position to ramp up advertising and swing-state infrastructure just as voters begin paying closer attention to the election.

The campaign figures don't include donations made to outside groups such as super PACs, legally separate entities that are supposed to operate independently from the campaigns. The new federal filings show that billionaire Timothy Mellon gave MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC, $50 million on May 31, as Common Dreamsreported Friday.

Biden's advisers say that the president still has the overall advantage in outside money. Pro-Biden super PACs and nonprofits have outspent pro-Trump groups by 50% on ads on six key battleground states, the Times reported. And Biden's billionaire supporters continue to give. Former New York City mayor and Democratic megadonor Michael Bloomberg donated $20 million to the president's campaign, anonymous sources said this week; June donations have not yet appeared in federal filings.

Pro-Trump groups are looking to catch up on ad buys now that they have more funds. MAGA Inc. just placed $30 million in airtime purchases in Georgia and Pennsylvania, the Times reported.

Both the Biden and Trump campaigns have major fundraisers scheduled for June 27 to coincide with the first presidential debate.