(PatriotWise.com) – Over the weekend, former President Donald Trump finally hit the campaign trail for the first time since he announced his candidacy for president in mid-November, delivering speeches in both New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.
Trump delivered similar stump speeches at both stops, focusing on the Biden administration’s mishandling of foreign policy and the southern border. The former president also repeated his claims about the 2020 presidential election, saying he won “two general elections” and accusing Democrats of being “great at stealing elections.”
During the invitation-only event in South Carolina, Trump presented his state campaign leadership team which includes Senator Lindsey Graham and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster.
While Trump may have started making campaign appearances, his 2024 campaign started the year strapped for cash.
According to an exclusive report from NBC News, end-of-year fundraising figures show that the Trump campaign only pulled in $9.5 million in 2022 after the mid-November launch of his 2024 campaign.
One Republican operative told NBC News that Trump launching his campaign right after a bruising midterm election, coupled with donor fatigue and Trump’s lack of social media presence likely contributed to his campaign’s lackluster fundraising efforts.
To address the cash problem, the Trump campaign recently hired the digital fundraising firm Campaign Inbox to solicit small-dollar donors, NBC News reported.
The former president’s fundraising efforts will also likely improve now that Facebook has lifted the ban on his account which was imposed not long after the Capitol riot over two years ago.
But according to Republican digital fundraising consultant Eric Wilson, Trump’s decision to announce his presidential campaign just one week after the midterms added to the campaign’s lack of cash.
Wilson told NBC News that as a general rule, the time immediately after an election is bad for fundraising since donors tend to be burned out from getting “bombarded by fundraising asks.” It was an especially bad time after the 2022 midterms since Trump didn’t have “a great track record” during the midterm elections, Wilson said.
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