Trump – Will the truth please stand up?

As I’ve written before, I had to laugh when I heard that Mr. Trump planned to self-fund his presidential campaign, but had a donation button on his website. I was waiting until the Federal Election Commission provided a report on his finances before writing more.

Here they are and you can review them on the FEC website here. Just type the word Trump into the search box and you can check all of the different report detail. Here are some for your analysis.

As I wrote, I thought that Mr. Trump did not donate significant money to his campaign but loaned almost all of it to himself. Why? It’s a common tactic used to get a campaign going so that when the public donates enough money, the loan is repaid and you are only spending other peoples’ money. If it’s donated, it’s essentially gone. Politicians know better than that.

What was a surprise is that the public, so far, haven’t showered him with money, only $92,249 during the reporting period ending 6/30/2015 and a total of $3,910,228 by 9/30/2015. I expected a lot more, but his proclamation about self-funding must have been heard and taken to heart. Having a big mouth has its downside.

In contrast, at the other end of the political spectrum, Bernie Sanders had received nearly $14 million in contributions during the reporting period ending 6/30/2015 and a total of $39,953,543 by 9/30/2015. That’s about ten times the individual Trump donations, plus another $1.5 million from a committee. Interestingly, over $30 million of Mr. Sanders contributions are unitemized. That means that the donations are so small (maximum $200) that the source doesn’t have to be listed. That’s grass roots support. Trump doesn’t appear to have any, or the public has bought his self-funding nonsense. If you look closely, you’ll see that Mr. Sanders didn’t loan himself or make any direct donations to himself.

In case you’re wondering, Mr. Sanders had one hundred and forty five maximum individual primary donations of $2,700. Mr. Trump received just thirteen maximum individual primary donations of $2,700. Perhaps they think that Mr. Trump’s donations will buy them some influence and benefits. It won’t.

For reference, Mr. Bush received three thousand five hundred and eight $2,700 donations towards the primary (no change since June) and Mrs. Clinton, sixteen thousand seven hundred and eight, a large increase since the June reporting period. Guess which two candidates of the four will be expected to hand out favors like candy if elected president? I’ll give you one guess.

Incidentally, that’s why you are only good for your vote. The people who gave money are listened to. You didn’t, so you aren’t.Our politicians think of you only good for rowing. Keep rowing.

Our elections are fought with money, not ideas or plans to improve our nation. I suspect, that broadly speaking, that whomever has the most wins. Why? You’ll have to read some of my other articles so you’ll understand.

The FEC summaries are below –

Donald Trump, through 6/30/15

Here’s the latest numbers ending 9/30/15. You’ll notice that he has collected over $13 million in spite of being “self-funded.”

Bernie Sanders, through 6/30/15

Here’s the latest numbers ending 9/30/15. You’ll notice that he has collected over $13 million in spite of being “self-funded.”

I will not be surprised if Mr. Trump drops out, as when his poll numbers drop he’ll realize the error of his ways and give up. We’ll see. The media has finally figured out that his over-the-top rhetoric is about getting free press coverage rather than any legitimate plan.

Finally, although the press talks about a handful of candidates, in this election there are actually 1.324 presidential hopefuls so far. Other than the leading candidates, 1,269 of them have raised a total of zero, 18 candidates, more than a million dollars. Mrs. Clinton has raised over 40% of the all 1,324 combined!