Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Trump Ends High-Dollar Fundraisers

The continuing collapse of the Donald Trump presidential campaign and the Republican Party's congressional efforts entered a new stage yesterday when the news broke that The Donald was done with high-dollar fundraisers.Steven Mnuchin, Trump's national finance chairman, has said the last such fundraiser was held October 19. Online fundraising continues strong, according to the campaign. The main impact will not be on the presidential race, which Mr. Trump has already lost in spectacular fashion, but rather it will undermine the Republican Party's Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts harming down ballot candidates. This could cost the GOP control of the Senate.

The Washington Post reported, "Mnuchin said the Trump campaign decided to keep the candidate's final weeks focused on taking his message to the voters in person rather than on raising money. There may be a handful of events in coming days featuring Trump surrogates, including his son Donald Jr., according to people familiar with the internal discussions. But Mnuchin said 'there is virtually nothing planned'."

The Trump campaign can get by without the money from $10,000-a-plate, rubber-chicken dinners. First off, he's on his way to defeat so more spending is just throwing good money after bad. Second, he isn't buying ads in expensive media markets, which would change the arithmetic both financially and electorally. So long as his online fundraising continues strong, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, he will be able to fuel the plane and rent spaces for rallies.

Unfortunately for the Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign keeps 80% of the online donations. Most of the in-person fundraising went to the party's coffers. Alex Isenstadt at Politico.com reported, "Republicans, on the verge of losing the Senate, are plowing a mammoth $25 million into six races in a last-ditch attempt to stop Donald Trump from dragging the entire GOP down with him.

"The investment from Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful super PAC with ties to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, comes as Democrats shift resources from Hillary Clinton's now almost certain victory to down-ballot contests in hopes of delivering her a congressional majority."

That is the proverbial double whammy. Not only does the RNC lose out because Mr. Trump is not raising money for the party, but also the Democrats can move money out of the presidential race to other races. Injecting $25 million is going to help, but it won't be enough. Steven Law, Senate Leadership Fund's president, told Mr. Isenstadt, "the $25 million expenditure would narrow the GOP deficit but wouldn't erase it. He also said he expected to make additional investments in the days to come, but he declined to provide further details."

However, this is not a sign of incompetence in the Trump war room. Instead, it's a strategic move to improve their position after the election. The people down ballot who are going to lose their seats are not Trump supporters. They are members of the Republican Party's establishment, moderates and others who just could not stomach the Donald as president. Seeing them lose will only serve to undermine the positions of Mitch McConnell in the Senate and Speaker Paul Ryan in the House. Mr. Trump is letting the Democrats remove his enemies within the Republican Party.

One doesn't necessarily credit Mr. Trump himself with this Machiavellian plan. However, the people around him, the political professionals, are caught in the midst of a conservative civil war. They are prepared to lose the battles at the polling booth in order to win the war over the future of the Republican Party and the American right.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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