U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign raised 10 million dollars in the first quarter of the year, leaving his re-election operation with 28 million dollars in cash, his campaign has said.
Trump spent 3.9 million dollars in the first quarter.
Trump has opted – unlike presidents before him – to begin actively fundraising in the early part of his first term.
He could use some of the money which he has already raised to help Republicans in the upcoming midterm election in November.
In addition to raising money for his own campaign, Trump has also collected funds for joint efforts with the Republican National Committee, which uses that money to help congressional candidates.
His re-election campaign finished 2017 with 22 million dollars in cash.
During the first quarter of the year, Trump spent about 834,000 dollars on legal expenses – down from the 1.1 million dollars he spent in each of the previous two quarters, according to disclosures filed with Federal Election Commission.
Trump’s campaign has used millions of his campaign cash in the past year to pay legal fees – including some fees associated with responding to the Russia investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
His campaign spent over three million dollars in 2017 in legal fees.
Trump filed for re-election the day he took office, an unusual move for an incumbent president.
Traditionally, incumbent presidents have waited until after their second year in office to begin their re-election campaign.
Trump will stand for re-election in November 2020. (Reuters/NAN)