If you think Trump is losing steam, well, he's not if you believe the RNC's Ronna McDaniel. Even though Donald Trump was only a one-term president, losing to Biden by 7 million nationwide votes and 74 electoral votes, McDaniel says the ex-president "still leads the party."
And it looks like McDaniel, who was neutral on the subject in January, is basing her assessment on Trump's "fundraising haul." From a WABC interview yesterday (approx 32 min):
"I always go back to the voters, and I think when you see the amount of people that show up to the rallies for President Trump, and this $102 million fundraising haul, I think the voters in America ― Republicans in America ― would absolutely say the president's the most popular Republican and still leads the party."
HuffPost points out that some of that money was returned to MAGA folk after they realized they were hornswoggled into making extra automatic donations.
Her latest comments follow news that political groups supporting Trump raked in more than $82 million during the first half of 2021, according to filings disclosed by the Federal Election Commission.
Shortly after those filings were released, The New York Times revealed that $12.8 million was returned to donors during this same period after one-time donors complained they were misled into making additional, automatic donations. These returns totaled roughly 20% of the $56 million that Trump and his committees have reportedly raised online so far this year.
But swindled or not, it doesn't matter. It's the bottom line – and not actions, lies, or character – that determines who gets to "lead" a political party, at least according to the RNC.
Image by DonkeyHotey / Flickr
