Donald Trump has forgiven $50 million in loans he made to his campaign, and has also seen a major uptick in contributions from donors in the past few days, his finance chief told CNBC on Thursday.
Later Thursday, Trump's campaign released this statement:
Donald J. Trump has just announced he has honored the pledge he made on May 13, 2016, when he stated, "I have absolutely no intention of paying myself back for the nearly $50 million dollars I have loaned to the campaign. This money is a contribution made in order to 'Make America Great Again.'"
Mr. Trump has fully extinguished (terminated) this loan per his commitment. Therefore, he has personally invested in excess of $50 million dollars in the future of our country. Unlike the all talk, no action politicians that have failed the American people for far too long, Mr. Trump is not beholden to the special interests that have corrupted Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump will continue to put America and our people first.
After self-funding his primary election, Mr. Trump and the campaign have assembled an exceptional fundraising operation, which in recent days has been overwhelmed with contributions for the Republican Party. Mr. Trump will continue to ensure the campaign has all of the resources necessary to defeat Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in November."
The New York real estate magnate's campaign had started June with a war chest of just over $1 million, badly lagging his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's $42 million, causing worries among his backers that he may not be able to adequately fund his White House bid.
"(Trump) loaned $50 million to the campaign. He's now forgiven that loan. So that is a contribution," Steve Mnuchin said. "(Trump) has also said he will contribute significantly more money."
Mnuchin added that Trump had raised about $10 million in conjunction with the Republican Party at fundraising events this week, along with another $6 million through online donations to his joint fundraising account with the party.
"We've really ramped up the effort this month," Mnuchin said.
He added that Trump's numbers at the beginning of June were "irrelevant" because his fundraising efforts for the general election only started recently.