Trump drops fundraisers to campaign
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump’s campaign said yesterday it has scheduled no more bigmoney fundraising events to benefit the Republican Party, another sign of the GOP nominee’s struggling campaign and a serious blow to the party’s get-out-the-vote operations with less than two weeks to go until election day.
The consequences of halting major fundraisers will compound the challenges facing a candidate and a party already straining to match Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s much larger and better-financed operation.
Unlike Clinton, who has an extensive turnout operation of her own, Trump and many other GOP candidates down the ballot are relying heavily on the Republican National Committee to bring voters to the polls.
In another sign of unexpected weakness, Trump also announced that Mike Pence, the GOP vicepresidential nominee, will pay a visit to Utah, where polls show Trump is at risk of losing the once reliably Republican state.
The developments came as both Clinton and Trump campaigned in Florida yesterday, underscoring the state’s importance on November 8, particularly for Trump, who acknowledged he probably cannot win the White House without carrying the state.
Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s national finance chairman, said that Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the party and the campaign, held its last formal fundraiser on October 19. ’’We’ve kind of wound down,’’ he said.
While Clinton was headlining her last fundraiser last night, outside Miami, her campaign has scheduled 41 other events between now and November 3 featuring high-profile surrogates such as her daughter, Chelsea, running mate Senator Tim Kaine and the entertainer Cher, according to a schedule sent to donors over the weekend.
Mnuchin said the Trump campaign is continuing to help bring in funds for the party, but decided to keep the candidate’s final weeks focused on taking his message to the voters in person rather than on raising money.
During three events in Florida yesterday Trump sought to focus his message on spikes in health insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act plans, arguing that the law was ‘‘blowing up’’ and vowing to introduce legislation on his first day in office to replace it.
‘‘Repealing Obamacare and stopping Hillary’s healthcare takeover is one of the single most important reasons that we must win on November 8,’’ he said.
But Trump, who has not focused much on the healthcare law during his campaign, bungled his argument earlier in the day during an event at his luxe Trump National Doral Miami resort, where he suggested that ‘‘all my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare’’.
He acknowledged minutes later that the resort - as required by law - offers healthcare plans to its employees; Doral’s director said 95 per cent of workers were covered.
Trump also reminded reporters that he is scheduled to leave the campaign trail today to attend the official grand opening of his new Trump-branded hotel on Washington’s Pennsylvania Ave.
‘‘I always said I’m getting to Pennsylvania Avenue one way or another,’’ he quipped as employees behind him laughed.
Clinton yesterday picked up the endorsement of Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who also served as secretary of state under former Republican president George W Bush.
Powell joins a growing list of Republican national security figures who have endorsed Clinton.
While Trump claims a long list of military endorsers, no former secretary of state has publicly backed his bid. - Washington Post