Trump's 2020 campaign raises over US$30m in first quarter

[NEW YORK] President Donald Trump raised more than US$30 million for his re-election in the first three months of 2019 and now sits atop more than US$40 million, his campaign said Sunday.

Mr Trump's campaign - which has set an ambitious US$1 billion goal for the 2020 race - launched an aggressive fundraising push earlier than his predecessors. The campaign has already installed a headquarters in Northern Virginia and is combining a push for both big donations and small contributions online.

Nearly 99 per cent of the donations in the first quarter were for US$200 or less, according to the campaign, with an average contribution of just over US$34.

Some Democrats are concerned that Mr Trump will spend the next year amassing a war chest as Democrats fight among themselves in a primary contest now featuring nearly 20 candidates. Mr Trump's US$30 million haul is about the size of what Sens Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, and Kamala Harris, D-Calif - the top two fundraisers so far in the 2020 Democratic field - raised combined in the first quarter.

In addition to direct donations to the campaign, Mr Trump is raising money for the Republican National Committee, which brought in another US$45.8 million in the first quarter.

NYTIMES