Donald Trump will be hosting his first major donor gathering at the Trump Tower in New York. Mr. Trump, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, who is hoping to raise between half and one billion dollars, will sit down with a group of reluctant donors to talk policy and to explain his path to winning the general election.
On Thursday, Donald Trump held his first major donor gathering with a dozen people in New York. The meeting was set to take place at the Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
Since Trump became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election, many conservative donors have reluctantly and even secretly joined the Trump Victory National Leadership.
The Trump Victory National Leadership is a newly formed fundraising organization that aims to bring in hundreds of millions in the coming months. According to several media outlets, the billionaires and millionaires, who helped fund Mitt Romney and John McCain‘s presidential campaigns are unhappy with some of Trump’s racist rhetoric against Mexicans and Muslims.
Many of them were not pleased by the fact that Trump spent much of the primary contests bashing wealthy donors, whom he called “crooks who bought politicians and used the system to their advantage” and constantly repeated “I’m self-funding my own campaign. It’s my money.”
They have accepted to sit down with the businessman hoping he will convince them to open their pocketbooks by promising to change his tone and by offering new policy ideas.
However, not all wealthy donors are embarrassed to be associated with the chairman of The Trump Organization. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, Dallas investor Ray Washburne, and Ron Weiser, a national co-chairman for Sen. McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and a former ambassador to Slovakia, will all attend the meeting and have signed on to help raise money.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and finance chairman Lew Eisenberg will also be part of the event. Trump’s old friend and investor, Tom Barrack, has already raised millions via his Rebuilding America Now PAC.
In a recent interview, Trump claimed that his goal is to first raise $500 million and later changed his mind by saying that he is hoping for $1 billion. Trump explained:
“We’re going to try and raise over a billion dollars, which is what’s going to be necessary. The Democrats maybe will get as high as $2 billion,”
Trump is set to attend ten finance events in the coming nine days, including fundraisers in Georgia, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio next week.
On June 18, Trump will be at a Texas fundraiser where a couple must pay $250,000 to attend.
What are your thoughts on this change of tactic in Trump’s fundraising?
