Republican candidate Donald Trump congratulated himself for reportedly raising $18 million in 24 hours after Monday night's debate, but the details of that figure went overlooked, according to Politico.
Going by the campaign's info, it is difficult to discern just how much of the $18 million will go to the Republican National Committee and how much will go to Trump's campaign. It is also unclear if that total includes pledges, or just cash donations.
"Today, we had something where I understand through largely small donors and some others, we had the biggest day we've ever had," Trump told a crowd Tuesday evening in Melbourne, Fla.
"Because of the success last night of the debate, they raised almost $18 million today. Can you believe it? $18 million. That's a lot. $18 million in one day, think of that. And that was largely because of last night."
According to Politico's source in the Trump campaign, only $5 million actually came from online donations directly to the campaign. The rest of the money came from phone solicitation, which around 100 major donors and figures in the campaign participated in, including Trump's children, Gov. Mike Pence, New York Giants owner Woody Johnson, led by Wall Street investor Lew Eisenberg, according to Fox News.
These donations would probably be larger, and from donors with a record of large contributions.
The source also said the donations were about equally split between Trump's campaign, a committee called Trump Victory that is raising money for the campaign, the RNC, and almost a dozen state party committees.
Trump Victory can accept up to $449,500 in donations, but the campaign cannot accept donations larger that $2,700, so the excess cash must go to the RNC and those state parties.
"From our standpoint, we were raising money for the joint fundraising committee and the campaign, it's all very important because it's all going to support either the ground campaign or more media," Steve Mnuchin, finance chairman for the Trump campaign, told Politico.
"With this kind of energy and generous support behind us, we are going to have President Donald J. Trump in the White House," he said in a statement after the call day.
According to Mnuchin, "We have a very high collectability rate on any pledges we get. We are at close to 100 percent," but there's often a "difference between pledged and collected" donations, so financial officials are "always skeptical when a call day is included in any explanation."
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