Trump plans fundraising trip to Florida in 2 weeks

President Donald Trump is heading to Florida for a July 31-Aug. 1 fundraising trip featuring events in Doral and Tampa.

One will have a side benefit for Trump: putting money in his own pocket because it’s scheduled at the Trump National golf resort in Doral.

The Trump campaign hasn’t publicly announced the fundraising trip, but his fundraising network was circulating invitations.

Both events offer three donor tiers: $100,000 for a roundtable, photo and reception; $35,000 in donations or money raised from others for a photo and reception, and $5,000 for a reception.

Presidential travel usually includes some kind of more public event designed to capitalize on his ability to capture news media attention. And re-election seeking presidents typically combine some kind of government-related, official stop with their political travels so the taxpayers — and not the campaign — bear the bulk of the high operating costs of Air Force One.

On July 10, Trump discussed drug trafficking in the Caribbean and U.S. policy toward Venezuela and visited his golf resort in Doral, then held a highdollar fundraiser in Hillsboro Beach. One feature of that trip that got some attention is the president wasn’t wearing a mask as he got off Air Force One at Miami International Airport, even though MiamiDade County had a mask order in place.

Besides being a source of campaign contributions, Florida is critical to Trump’s hopes for re-election.

It provides 29 of the 270 votes he needs to win reelection. In 2016 Trump won 49% of the vote statewide to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 47.8%.

The Real Clear Politics average of five recent public opinion polls in Florida shows Democrat Joe Biden leading Trump 49% to 43%.