Trump schedules in-person fundraisers as shackles come off
May 29, 2020Donald Trump is resuming in-person fundraising events — the most concrete move yet by the president to restart typical election-year activities halted by the coronavirus.
Trump is slated to host a June 11 fundraiser at a private home in Dallas and a June 13 outdoor event at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, according to a party official familiar with the planning.
The person stressed that organizers are taking extensive measures to ensure the safety of the president and attendees. The fundraisers will be smaller than Trump’s usual events, with only about 25 attendees expected at each.
The White House medical unit and Secret Service will evaluate attendees before they're admitted. They'll be required to test negative for the virus on the day of the event, complete a health questionnaire and pass a temperature screening. The sites will be cleaned and sanitized before each event.
Trump Victory, the president’s joint fundraising committee, will cover the testing costs.
The move comes as Trump expresses his desire for the country to reopen even as medical professionals raise concerns about the potential dangers of doing so. The pandemic death toll passed 100,000 this week.
Trump is also dead set on holding the GOP’s August national convention in Charlotte, even as North Carolina officials are raising concerns about safety. The Charlotte area has seen an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent days.
Trump has also been itching to resume his trademark rallies, his primary method of connecting with supporters and broadcasting his message. The president’s campaign team has used the events to glean data from attendees which is used to turn out his voters.
The president has left the confines of the White House over the past few weeks to hold ostensibly official events in swing states like Arizona and Michigan, where polls have shown him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The events have sometimes had the feel of a rally, complete with walk-out music.
Trump’s advisers want him to be seen as eager to reopen the country while Democrats push for stay-at-home orders that keep the economy shuttered. Earlier this month, the reelection effort released a one-minute advertisement titled “American Comeback” highlighting the president’s desire to reignite the economy. The spot concluded with Trump’s mantra that he will “make America great again.”
The president’s previously busy fundraising schedule came to a halt in March. A planned March 12 fundraiser with GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson was scrapped, as were a pair of events that month to be headlined by first lady Melania Trump.
Even with in-person fundraising events slashed, the president has maintained robust fundraising totals thanks to a massive small-donor operation. Trump’s political machine narrowly outraised Biden in April and has a $187 million cash-on-hand lead over Biden and the Democratic Party.
Biden has sworn off in-person fundraisers during the pandemic, instead doing online events from his Delaware home.
Couples will need to donate $580,600 to attend the Dallas fundraiser. A single attendee to the New Jersey fundraiser will need to give $250,000. The money will go to Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee of the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee, and state parties.
Source: https://www.politico.com/