Donald Trump, a member of the Republican Party, sought re-election in the 2020 United States presidential election. He was inaugurated as president of the United States on January 20, 2017, and filed for re-election with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on the same day. This was Trump's third run for President, his second with the Republican Party, and the only campaign Trump ran as an incumbent.
Trump began his re-election campaign unusually early for an incumbent president, beginning to spend money on the re-election effort within weeks of his election. From February 2017 onward, Trump held more than 150 rallies and fundraisers for this campaign, visiting key electoral states. The campaign also raised funds and ran two nationwide advertising campaigns. Trump said in several stump speeches that the slogans for the 2020 race would be "Keep America Great" and "Promises Made, Promises Kept". On November 7, 2018, Trump confirmed that Mike Pence would be his vice presidential running mate in 2020.
Trump's 2020 re-election bid was ultimately unsuccessful; the Democratic Party ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election. This marked the first time since 1992 that an incumbent president lost re-election. Trump refused to accept the results; he and his allies made disproven claims of fraud, pressured elections officials, filed several unsuccessful lawsuits,
and directly attempted to overturn the results at the county, state, and federal level. This culminated in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, for which Trump was impeached a second time. The day after the attack, Trump stated that a "new administration" would be succeeding his, without mentioning president-elect Biden by name, in a video posted on Twitter.
Had Trump been re-elected to a second consecutive term, he would have been the first Republican to win two consecutive presidential elections since George W. Bush in 2004. He would also have been the oldest U.S. president to be elected president twice at the age of 74 years, 4 months, and 20 days, surpassing Ronald Reagan in 1984. If he had won in 2020, he would not have been eligible to run again in 2024 due to term limits set by the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution. Trump did subsequently run for a re-election campaign four years later in 2024. He was successfully elected to a second, non-consecutive term as the 47th president of the United States in 2024 with JD Vance as his running mate.
Contents
Background
Trump's predecessors merged their campaign committees into their party's committee following their election victories. Following his 2016 election victory, Trump eschewed this presidential tradition and retained a separate campaign committee which continued raising funds. In December 2016, the campaign raised $11 million. These moves indicated that Trump was already eyeing a 2020 run.
Trump started spending money on the 2020 race on November 24, 2016 (16 days after the end of the 2016 election). The earliest campaign disbursement that his committees reported was spent towards the 2020 presidential primaries was for the purchase of a Delta Air Lines ticket on this date. Trump officially filed his re-election campaign with the FEC on January 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration. Trump launched his re-election campaign earlier in his presidency than his predecessors did. Barack Obama (2012), George W. Bush (2004), Bill Clinton (1996), George H. W. Bush (1992) and Ronald Reagan (1984) all declared their candidacies for re-election in the third year of their presidencies. His successor, Joe Biden also declared his initial re-election campaign for the 2024 election in the third year of his presidency. Trump filed the papers for his re-election campaign approximately 47 months prior to the date of the election. In contrast, both Reagan and George H. W. Bush did so approximately twelve, George W. Bush approximately 18, and both Clinton and Obama approximately 19 months before those elections.
While previous presidents had held rallies in the early days of their presidency to garner support for legislation, such rallies differed from Trump's in that they were funded by the White House rather than by campaign committees. One of the advantages of having his campaign committee fund the events is that organizers can more discriminately screen attendees, refusing entry to non-supporters. Trump's February 2017 rally in Melbourne, Florida, was the earliest campaign rally for an incumbent president.
By filing for his campaign as early as he did, Trump gave himself a head start on fundraising. This theoretically helped discourage primary challengers.
Since his three predecessors (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama) were each won re-elections to their second terms, had Trump been re-elected, it would have been the first time in American history that four consecutive incumbent presidents were each elected to two consecutive terms.
Permanent campaign
Although Trump's early campaign filing was extraordinarily unusual, aspects of a "permanent campaign" are not entirely unprecedented in American politics. Such a phenomenon had a presence in the White House at least as early as the presidency of Bill Clinton. Under the advice of Sidney Blumenthal, Clinton's staff continued to engage in campaign methodology once in office, using polling for assistance in making decisions.
Political observers who bolster the opinion that a permanent campaign has had a significant impact on recent presidencies argue that decisions by presidents have increasingly been made with considerations to their impact on voter approval.
The concept of a permanent campaign also describes the focus which recent presidents have given to electoral concerns during their tenures in office, with the distinction between the time they have spent governing and the time they have spent campaigning having become blurred. Political observers consider the rise in presidential fundraising as a symptom of the permanent campaign.
The disproportionately large amounts of time presidents have spent visiting key electoral states (and a comparatively small amount of time they have spent visiting states that pose little electoral importance to them) has been pointed to as evidence of ulterior electoral motives influencing presidential governance, emblematic of the blurred lines between campaigning and governance in the White House. For instance, George W. Bush embarked on 416 domestic trips during his first three years in office. This was 114 more than his predecessor Bill Clinton made in his first three years. In his first year, 36% of Bush's domestic trips were to the 16 states that were considered swing states after having been decided the closest margins during the 2000 election. In his second year, 45% of his domestic travel was to these states, and his third year 39% of his domestic travel was to these states.
According to the Associated Press, a data analysis firm named Data Propria, launched in May 2018 to provide ad-targeting services and run by former officials of Cambridge Analytica, is working on public relations for the Trump 2020 re-election campaign.
Political positions
Emerging from the 2020 convention, the campaign agenda for a second term was primarily to build on the first term agenda.
As some George Floyd protests included violent incidents, Trump emphasized "law and order" as a major campaign theme, directing particular criticism at antifa. Trump and attorney general Bill Barr asserted that antifa had organized the protests, although there was no evidence to support that. Barr had also baselessly linked antifa to the Black Lives Matter movement. Three August 2020 DHS draft reports did not mention antifa as a domestic terrorism risk and ranked white supremacy as the top risk, higher than that of foreign terrorist groups. Brian Murphy — until August 2020, the DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis — asserted in a September 2020 whistleblower complaint that Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli instructed him "to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and 'anarchist' groups" and to downplay the severity of risk associated with white supremacy. Murphy said he refused. The campaign sent a fundraising text message to supporters in September 2020 stating an "ANTIFA ALERT," continuing, "They'll attack your homes if Joe's elected."
The vilification of protesters extended to a threat to list "Antifa" (short for anti-fascism) a "designated terrorist" group.
The advertisement showed an inverted red triangle as an antifa symbol.
Many people saw this as offensive, because the Nazis has used the symbol on the uniforms of their political opponents in concentration camps.
Top officials tried to keep dossiers on identified protesters, whom they intended to blame for a terrorist plot that did not exist. The purpose was to help Trump win re-election.
Approval ratings
Presidential approval ratings, while rising slightly throughout the second half of his first term, have generally shown Trump to be one of the least popular presidents in the history of modern opinion polling during a presidential election year. Political observers point out that presidential job approval is highly partisan, with Gallup writing in March 2020:The 92% approval among Republicans and 42% among independents are close to his highest ratings for those groups. Meanwhile, his approval rating among Democrats, currently 8%, hasn't been above 13% since he took office in February 2017. The current 84-point gap in approval between Republicans and Democrats is just a few points shy of the record polarization Gallup found in late January and early February.In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in early spring 2020, Trump's approval rating saw a small but notable rally in support, followed by a tick-down in mid-2020. In June and July 2020, public polling showed Trump's approval significantly weakening.
The following maps document the frequency with which Trump has visited each state and territory during his first presidency.
2017 campaign developments
January 2017: launch
On January 10, 2017, Politico reported that Trump would be keeping his campaign offices in Trump Tower open in order to lay the groundwork for a re-election campaign. By that time his campaign offices at Trump Tower already included a staff of about ten people led by Republican strategist Michael Glassner. Glassner's deputy is John Pence, nephew of Vice President Mike Pence. The campaign staff was focused on data-building and fundraising for a 2020 re-election campaign.
On January 18, Trump revealed, in an interview with The Washington Post, that he had decided Keep America Great would be his 2020 re-election campaign slogan. Two days later, on the day of his inauguration, Trump filed a form with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) declaring that he qualified as a candidate for the 2020 presidential election.
February 2017: first rally
By February 1, 2017, Trump's re-election campaign had already raised over $7 million.
The first rally organized by the campaign was held on February 18, 2017, in Melbourne, Florida, and was attended by an estimated 9,000 supporters. It was the earliest an incumbent president had ever held a re-election campaign rally. During the rally, Trump defended his actions and criticized the media. He referred to a nonexistent incident ("last night in Sweden ...") while criticizing the asylum policies of several European countries. After backlash from the press and the Swedish government, Trump said he was referring to a Fox News program aired the previous day.
On February 24, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual event which has often held a presidential straw poll. However, the CPAC 2017 straw poll did not include a preference survey on presidential candidates.
March 2017: second and third rallies
On March 4, there were a series of local rallies held by allies of the campaign in some 50 cities. Several of the rallies were met by counter-demonstrations where some protesters were arrested. Other events were held around the country throughout March, some of which resulted in violence.
The campaign's second rally was held a month later in Nashville on March 15, and coincided with the 250th birthday of Andrew Jackson. Prior to the rally, Trump paid tribute to Jackson and laid a wreath at his tomb. During the rally, Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') and defended his revised travel ban, which was put on hold by Derrick Watson, a federal judge in Hawaii, hours later.
A third rally was held by the campaign in Louisville on March 20. At the rally, Trump promoted efforts to repeal Obamacare.
On March 29, it was reported that Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, had been hired as a consultant by the campaign's digital vendor Giles-Parscale.
April 2017: fourth rally
By mid-April, the Trump campaign had a staff of around 20 employees.
Trump gave a speech on April 28 at an event for the National Rifle Association of America.
Trump held his fourth campaign rally on April 29 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which coincided with the hundredth day of Trump's presidency. It also took place the same night as the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which Trump did not attend. In addition to Trump, Vice President Pence also spoke at the April 29 rally.
May 2017: launch of first advertising campaign
On May 1, the campaign announced that they were spending $1.5 million on national advertisements touting Trump's accomplishments in the first 100 days. The ad buy, which included advertisements targeted at voters who supported specific agenda items of Trump's presidency, came approximately 42 months before election day 2020, or any other major party's candidate declarations. FactCheck.org found several inaccuracies in the advertisement, and Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune described the 30-second advertisement as being, "stuffed with Trump's signature misleading puffery". Additionally, original versions of the ad showed Trump shaking hands with H. R. McMaster, an active-duty military member who was barred from participating in any political advocacy while in uniform. Subsequent airings of the advertisement substituted this clip.
The ad claimed that the "fake news" media refused to report the successes of the administration, but Forbes pointed out that the ad itself cited mainstream media sources including CNBC, The Boston Globe and The New York Times. Because of this accusation against the news media, CNN decided to stop running the ad, a decision that campaign manager Michael Glassner criticized as an action to "censor our free speech". ABC, CBS and NBC later joined CNN in refusing to play the ad. Lara Trump, a consultant to the campaign and the daughter-in-law of the president, called the ad removals "an unprecedented act of censorship in America that should concern every freedom-loving citizen".
On May 8, shortly after reporter Cecilia Vega asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about statements that Trump's 2016 campaign had issued in regard to temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States, Trump's campaign website purged itself of all campaign statements from the 2016 campaign. Campaign chairman Michael Glassner later announced that the website was being redesigned. The redesign of Trump's campaign website was seen by media sources as laying the groundwork for a full-bodied reelection campaign. The Washington Examiner's David Druckert pointed out on Twitter that the redesigned website featured an image of Trump with a uniformed military officer on its 'Donate' page, which violated the Department of Defense's regulation that prohibits uniformed military officers from engaging in any political activity.
On May 18, Trump hosted chairmen of the Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania state parties at the White House. Each of their states are considered to be presidential swing states. On May 25, Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric, along with Eric's wife Lara, held a series of meetings at the Washington, D.C., offices of the Republican National Committee (RNC) to outline campaign strategy.
June 2017: fifth rally, first fundraiser and visits to swing states
On June 1, President Trump announced his plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement saying, "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." Soon afterwards, the campaign announced it would hold a Pittsburgh Not Paris Rally across from the White House. The rally was held June 3 at Lafayette Square. The event was sponsored by the Fairfax County Republican Committee and the Republican Party of Virginia. Relatively few people attended the event, with estimates varying from 200 people (including counter-protesters) to "dozens" of supporters. By comparison, more people attended the anti-Trump March for Truth, which was held the same day.
Trump began campaigning in Iowa in June. Iowa was considered to be a perennial swing state and the Iowa caucus is scheduled as the earliest presidential primary election. Iowa has also been home to nonbinding straw polls held ahead of the primaries (Trump won the 2015 straw poll among Republican candidates).
On June 7, Trump delivered what the New York Daily News described as a "campaign-style speech" in Cincinnati, Ohio. Five days later, reports surfaced that Trump was making plans to embark on a more expansive tour that would visit several battleground states.
Trump held his fifth official campaign rally in Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa. The area, home to a large population of working class whites, was seen as a strong region for Trump to find a base of political support. The date for the rally, having been changed several times, was ultimately held on June 21, marking the first time in his presidency that Trump traveled west of the Mississippi River. At the rally, Iowa GOP state chairman Jeff Kaufmann verbally attacked Nebraskan senator Ben Sasse, who was speculated by some as a potential challenger to Trump in the 2020 Republican primaries.
Vice President Pence attended Joni Ernst's 3rd Annual Roast and Ride fundraiser, held on June 3 at the Central Iowa Expo near Boone, Iowa. The previous editions of this event have included presidential campaign appearances. Trump himself had previously attended Ernst's fundraiser in 2016 while campaigning in Iowa, and seven Republican presidential contenders attended the event in 2015.
July 2017: sixth rally
On July 1, Trump delivered a speech at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during an event honoring veterans. The event was sponsored by First Baptist Dallas and the Salem Media Group. The event was described as resembling one of Trump's campaign rallies.
On July 6, The Hill reported that 2020 campaign merchandise bearing Trump's name (including merchandise supporting and opposing his candidacy) was selling more than those with the names of prospective opponents.
First Daughter and advisor to the president Ivanka Trump introduced Vice President Pence at a GOP fundraiser.
In its mid-July financial disbursement filing, the campaign reported that on June 27, Donald Trump Jr. made a payment to Alan Futerfas for "legal consulting" regarding his attempt to get "dirt on Clinton" in the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between him, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and one or more representatives of the Russian government.
On July 24, Trump gave a highly political address at the National Scout Jamboree, a traditionally non-political event.
Trump held his sixth campaign rally on July 25 at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio. During the speech, Trump reveled in addressing an audience outside of the national capital. He also condemned "predators and criminal aliens" and called them "animals". Chicago Tribune writer Rex W. Huppke criticized this comment, comparing it to the previous day's remarks at the National Scout Jamboree. Trump also made remarks on the homicide rate in Chicago, and called on the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, to "get tough"; Emanuel responded the following day, stating: "It is not about being tough, it's about being smart and strategic."
September 2017
On September 16, groups supporting Trump held a rally on the National Mall named the Mother of All Rallies. Organizers were originally hoping to draw a million attendees, but in planning for security, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia expected only 1,800. Only about a 1,000 people attended.
A national organization had originally planned to hold "We Support Trump" rallies across the nation on September 9, however subsequently reneged on those plans. However, an independent rally in support of Trump was subsequently announced to be held on that date in Georgetown, Delaware, in a county where Trump got a majority of the vote in 2016. The Georgetown rally was sponsored by the Sussex County Republican Committee and attended by over 100 people.
On September 26, Trump attended a campaign fundraising dinner hosted by the Republican National Committee in New York City. The event was reported to have raised nearly $5 million, with major donors spending up to $250,000 to dine with President Trump. Trump scheduled for a quick meeting with Nikki Haley and other U.N. officials immediately prior the fundraiser; travel expenses were reportedly filed as "government business", and therefore taxpayer-funded. Trump's pattern of mixing travel for fundraising activities with travel for government business has drawn criticism from government watchdog organizations.
Trump was scheduled to headline a fundraiser in Dallas on September 27, which was canceled by its organizers in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
October 2017
On October 16, Trump indicated his desire to see his 2016 general election opponent, Hillary Clinton, run again in 2020. Clinton had previously asserted that she had no desire to run for public office again.
On October 25, the president traveled to Texas for a fundraiser hosted by the Dallas County Republican Party for both the RNC and his reelection campaign. The event was closed to the media. Mark Knoller noted, "By my count, this will be Pres Trump's 10th political fundraiser since taking office. 9 of 10 were closed to press coverage including today."
November 2017
In early November, ethics watchdogs and political analysts expressed concerns over Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump assuming a greater role in the White House, while also continuing to be an active member of Trump's reelection campaign. Lara Trump, while working for the reelection campaign, had reportedly held private political meetings with government officials such as Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Veteran Affairs Committee chairman Phil Roe and Representative Ron DeSantis.
December 2017
In December 2017, polls showed that more than 40 percent of Americans wanted Trump impeached, reportedly higher than the percentage of Americans who said at the time that they planned to vote for him in 2020.
2018 campaign developments
February 2018
In February 2018, the Trump campaign sent out an email with a photo of Trump paying a hospital visit to a student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. After stating that Trump prioritizes the safety of American students and schools, the email linked to the campaign's donations page.
On February 25, the Drudge Report announced that the president had chosen Brad Parscale as the campaign manager for his re-election campaign. Parscale was the digital strategist for the previous campaign as the head of Giles-Parscale, which raised some concerns about how the campaign would conduct its advertising.
March 2018
On March 10, Trump held a rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. He campaigned for Rick Saccone for the local special election and also declared that his 2020 campaign slogan would be "Keep America Great!"
On March 13, Trump made his first trip to the state of California as president to attend a campaign fundraiser at the Beverly Hills home of Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Ed Glazer. The same day, it was announced that Katrina Pierson and John McEntee had been hired by the campaign as senior advisors.
April 2018
In 2018, Trump skipped the White House Correspondents' Dinner, holding a rally on the same night (as he had the previous year), this time in Washington, Michigan.
May 2018
In May, Trump held a rally in Indiana where he once again shared that his 2020 campaign slogan would be "Keep America Great!". Although he had already revealed this before, Trump told the supporters at his rally,
"Keep America Great!" Because we are doing so well that in another two years when we start the heavy campaign, "Make America Great Again" wouldn't work out too well. It's going to be "Keep America Great" because that's exactly where we are headed.
June 2018
On June 20, Trump held a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, supporting Republican Congressional candidate Pete Stauber in the 2018 midterm elections and addressing his own 2020 prospects in the state among other subjects. The rally came on the day the president had signed an executive order on the treatment of immigrant families with children. At the rally he said enforcement at the border would be "just as tough" under the executive order.
Trump traveled to the Nevada Republican Convention in Las Vegas on Saturday, June 23, and also appeared on the trip at a fundraiser for U.S. senator Dean Heller. Along with policy issues Trump addressed Heller's challenger, U.S. representative Jacky Rosen, as "Wacky Jacky". The president continued, asking of the simultaneous Nevada Democratic Party convention in Reno featuring Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, "Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas, can you believe it?"
On June 27, the president held a rally in Fargo, North Dakota, supporting Representative Kevin Cramer in his challenge to sitting senator Heidi Heitkamp. Trump also addressed, at the rally, the just-announced news of the retirement from the Supreme Court of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Cramer addressed the issue of abortion and Heitkamp's position on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act as his reason for entering the race. "'On behalf of the most forgotten people,' Mr. Cramer said to the president as both men took the stage to deafen applause, 'the unborn babies, thank you for standing for life.'"
October 2018
During a campaign rally in Houston on October 22, Trump defined himself as a nationalist, acknowledging the controversial use of the word.
November 2018
The campaign financed a number of rallies in support of Republican candidates in the Midterm election. While the Republicans grew their Senate majority in the elections, they lost a significant amount of their House delegation, including control of the chamber.
On November 7, Trump confirmed that Mike Pence would be his vice-presidential running mate in 2020.
December 2018
The campaign makes the unprecedentedly early move to merge the campaign's field operations with that of the Republican National Committee. The campaign tapped White House political director Bill Stepien and Director of Public Liaison Justin Clark as senior political advisors, who would focus on delegate organization and to ensure that the 2020 Republican National Convention would run smoothly.
2019 campaign developments
January–March 2019
In January, in a unanimous vote, the Republican National Committee informally endorsed the president's campaign and coordination between the two entities formally began.
In February, a state-by-state effort was launched by Trump's campaign team to oppose any presidential challenges from within the Republican Party. The campaign has used endorsements, lobbying and state-party rule changes to ensure Trump does not face opposition during the Republican nominating convention, with a senior campaign adviser calling it a "process of ensuring that the national convention is a television commercial for the president for an audience of 300 million and not an internal fight".
The first rally of the year took place at the El Paso County Coliseum, in El Paso, Texas, on February 12. It was highlighted by pro-wall talking points and a BBC cameraman filming the event, getting into a scuffle with a supporter that the president disavowed.
From February 28 to March 3, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC took place in National Harbor, Maryland. This year, the usual straw poll was not held, and on the last day, Trump made a two-and-a-half hour-long speech, which was covered live by C-SPAN and Fox News and was prominently featured in media throughout the world.
On March 28, the president held a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during which he reveled in his alleged "exoneration" calling for Democrats to apologize for the Russia investigation and to stop the "ridiculous bullshit".
Trump also attacked Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, as "little pencil-neck ... who has the smallest, thinnest neck I've ever seen", and someone who is "not a long-ball hitter". The president then ticked through those he felt wronged him as the crowd chanted, "Lock them up! Lock them up!"
April–June 2019
In April, Trump visited the border at Calexico, California, before attending campaign events in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
On April 10, Trump has had a video removed from Twitter because it used Hans Zimmer's track Why Do We Fall? from The Dark Knight Rises without requesting copyright from Warner Bros Pictures. Trump may also have referred to the Batman universe in his campaign.
On April 15, 2019, former Republican Massachusetts governor Bill Weld announced that he will challenge Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination for president.
The New York Times reported in June 2019 that after Trump had been briefed on internal polling showing he was trailing Joe Biden in several key states, he instructed aides to deny it and to publicly state that other data showed him doing well. The next day, Trump tweeted, "The Fake (Corrupt) News Media said they leaked into polling done by my campaign ... They reported Fake numbers that they made up and don't even exist," later telling reporters, "we are winning in every single state that we polled." Public polls at the time showed Trump trailing in key states such as Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Days later, the Trump campaign severed ties with some of its internal pollsters. Trump also said that "something weird" is happening at Fox News after their poll also showed him losing to several Democratic candidates.
On June 12, during an interview with ABC News, Trump said that were a foreign country to offer damaging information on a political opponent, his reaction would be: "I think I'd want to hear it ... There's nothing wrong with listening." Trump also said the "FBI director is wrong" about the need to inform the FBI about a foreign government attempting to influence an election. Trump initially claimed his comments were mischaracterized, prompting ABC News to release a transcript. On June 13, Federal Election Commission chairwoman Ellen Weintraub stated: "It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election." On June 14, Trump told Fox News: "If I don't hear what it is, you're not going to know what is ... Now, if I thought anything was incorrect or badly stated, I'd report it to the Attorney General, the FBI."
A joint report published in June 2019 by the Center for Public Integrity, NBC News and CNBC detailed that the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaigns have yet to pay bills totaling over $800,000 to ten city governments for costs incurred to ensure public safety concerning Trump campaign rallies. The rallies took place from January 2016 to August 2016, and from September 2018 to February 2019.
July 2019
At a campaign rally on July 17 in North Carolina, Trump criticized four Democratic congresswomen (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib), stating: "They never have anything good to say. That's why I say, 'Hey if you don't like it, let 'em leave' ... if they don't love it, tell them to leave it." Trump said this in spite of his own history of criticizing previous United States administrations and policies, including his 2016 campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" indirectly asserting America was no longer "great", and his first presidential speech decrying "American carnage". In his speech, Trump referenced Tlaib: "that's not somebody that loves our country." Trump also named Omar and continued that Omar "looks down with contempt" on Americans, the crowd of Trump supporters reacted by chanting 'send her back!' After the rally, Trump tweeted: "What a crowd, and what great people." Asked about the chants on July 18, Trump said he disagreed with the chants, and claimed he had tried to stop them by "speaking very quickly".
August 2019
At an August 1 campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, Trump declared: "We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America, and curing childhood cancer very shortly." This echoed his earlier comments during the June 2019 Orlando, Florida rally, when Trump pledged: "we will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases – including cancer." Despite attacking four Democratic congresswomen as being too critical of America, Trump continued a recent trend of criticizing major American cities; at the rally, Trump singled out the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. Trump said that Democrats governing liberal cities "deliver poverty for their constituents and privilege for themselves", with federal funding becoming "stolen money and it's wasted money". He also blamed protesters interrupting his rally on the premise that Cincinnati "must have a Democrat mayor". Trump highlighted Baltimore having a higher homicide rate (55.8 of 100,000 people) than the country Afghanistan, although he did not propose a policy to address the issue.
On August 7, following the 2019 Dayton shooting and the 2019 El Paso shooting, Trump visited Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. That day, Trump fired back at Democratic presidential candidates Beto O'Rourke ("be quiet") and Joe Biden ("boring") who had previously criticized him. Trump additionally labeled Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro as a "fool" and "not much" of a man. While talking to medical staff at El Paso, Trump mentioned that his February 2019 campaign rally in the city had drawn a much bigger crowd than O'Rourke's campaign rally that same day. A campaign-style video of Trump shaking hands and posing for photos during the visit was released by the White House.
September 2019
On September 11, Trump tweeted that he has not "even started campaigning yet". As the Trump–Ukraine scandal emerged and Trump faced an impeachment inquiry, the Trump campaign launched a $10 million television and web campaign with a video claiming Joe Biden had offered Ukraine $1 billion if they fired a prosecutor who was "investigating his son's company", including video of Biden boasting that the prosecutor had been fired. Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the owner of which was investigated, but Biden himself was not investigated. Then-vice president Biden had in March 2016 threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. The Obama administration and other governments and non-governmental organizations were concerned that Shokin was not adequately pursuing corruption in Ukraine, was protecting the political elite, and was regarded as "an obstacle to anti-corruption efforts". In particular, he was seen to be slow walking the Burisma investigation. The ad asserted that Trump had acted to fight corruption and Democrats were impeaching him for it. No evidence has surfaced of any malfeasance by the Bidens.
Previously, in sworn testimony, the administration officials said Giuliani directly conveyed the president's demands to them that Ukraine launch investigations into the son of former vice president Joe Biden and a long-debunked 2016 election-related conspiracy. However, Trump later denied sending Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to push Biden.
October–December 2019
As the impeachment investigation continued, the campaign spent copious amounts of money defending the president against it.
Prior to December 12, three lawsuits claimed Trump's business dealings have been violating the Constitution. All these cases advanced to critical stages in federal courts. On the night of December 18, coinciding with the vote to impeach him, Trump held a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan. He received criticism for suggesting the deceased representative John Dingell may have gone to hell.
The Associated Press acquired a recording of senior Trump campaign advisor Justin Clark telling Wisconsin Republicans that "traditionally it's always been Republicans suppressing votes in places" and 2020 would be the time to "start playing offense a little bit" to protect their voters. Clark asserted to the AP that he was speaking about how "Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter suppression."
In October, the Trump campaign ran a Facebook ad that falsely claimed Joe Biden offered to bribe Ukrainian officials to not investigate his son, Hunter Biden.
2020 campaign developments
January 2020
The impeachment trial began on January 16.
January 9: First campaign rally of 2020 was held at the 8,000 seat Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.
January 14: Monster Rally in Green Bay, WI
January 28: Monster Rally in Wildwood, NJ
January 30: Monster Rally at Drake University's Knapp Center in Des Moines, IA
January 31: The Kansas state convention began, being the second official event of the Republican race..
February 2020
February 1: At the Kansas state convention, the entire selection process took place, culminating with the official binding of the delegation to Trump, giving him his second state.
February 2: The Iowa caucuses: the president received 31,464 (97.1%) of the vote.
February 10: Monster Rally at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH
February 13: In the New Hampshire primary, the president received 129,461 (85.7%) of the votes cast.
February 22: The Nevada state committee awarded all of its delegates to President Trump.
March 2020
March 3: Super Tuesday. With over 60% of delegates selected by this date, the race for the nomination formally ended.
March 5: Facebook removed Trump campaign ads directing users to participate in an "Official 2020 Congressional District Census" on what was actually a campaign fundraising site.
April 2020
April 23: The Trump campaign released a new app which offers rewards for sharing Trump's tweets.
Late April: Trump scolded campaign manager Brad Parscale after data from two polls, one from the Trump's own campaign and one from the Republican National Committee, showed Trump losing to Joe Biden in swing states, reported The Washington Post and CNN. At one point, Trump said he may sue Parscale, although it is unclear whether he was joking. Both Trump and Parscale denied that Trump had shouted. Parscale did not deny a conflict, and he did not deny Trump saying he may sue. Trump told the media he does not "believe the polls".
May 2020
May 4: CNN sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign regarding its ad, "American Comeback", which had begun running the previous evening on cable television. The ad selected words from a CNN interview and inserted them into a different context, making it a clear example of "deceptive editing", The Washington Post explained.
June 2020
June 8: After a CNN poll found Trump 14 percentage points behind Joe Biden, Trump on Twitter declared the poll "FAKE", saying he had "retained highly respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates", to analyze that poll. The Republican Party's congressional campaign arm has advised Republicans to avoid employing McLaughlin & Associates after it predicted in 2014 that Republican Representative Eric Cantor would win re-election in a Republican primary by 34 points, but Cantor actually lost by around 10 points. Later in 2018, McLaughlin & Associates predicted that Republican Representative Rob Woodall would win re-election by 27 points, but Woodall ended up winning by only 0.2 points.
June 9: The Trump campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to CNN over their poll, demanding a retraction and apology. CNN refused. During June, Trump also suggested he might sue campaign manager Brad Parscale for presenting polling data showing the president trailing in several key states. The New York Times describes this incident as a jest, rather than a serious threat, and participants in the call say Parscale responded to the threat by saying, "I love you, too."
June 10: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Trump campaign said the president would resume his campaign rallies, the first being at Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19. Ticketholders must "assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19", and cannot hold the Trump campaign liable for resultant illness or injury. The rally was later pushed back by one day to June 20, out of respect for the original date falling on Juneteenth (which was deemed insensitive due to the Tulsa race massacre and the ongoing George Floyd protests).
June 12: The RNC decided not to write a new platform for 2020, reusing 2016's, which denounces the "current president".
June 15: In a tweet, then-campaign manager Brad Parscale indicated that ticket requests for the June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had surpassed a million.
June 18, Trump campaign ads threatening to list Antifa as a designated terrorist group used an inverted red triangle symbol. The campaign claimed it was an Antifa symbol, but until 2023 the red triangle was not widely used by anti-fascists in the United States (further details below).
July 2020
Celebrating Independence Day with an address at Mount Rushmore, Trump said he was in a battle against a "new far-left fascism". The New York Times characterized Trump as using the address "to mount a full-on culture war against a straw-man version of the left that he portrayed as inciting mayhem and moving the country toward totalitarianism". The Washington Post reported that while "amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of Trump's public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as the president has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain."
On the evening of July 4, musician and entrepreneur Kanye West announced his campaign for the presidency. Los Angeles Times reported that "It's unclear whether West has filed any of the necessary paperwork to formally join the race between incumbent Donald Trump – for whom West has expressed admiration," and said this "might be part of an effort to draw Black supporters away from Biden to help Trump."
Vice President Pence and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Joe Biden had asserted police had "become the enemy". Biden's words were taken out of context, as he had actually said the use of military-grade heavy equipment by police officers can look like "the military invading" communities and thus makes police "become the enemy" in the perception of some in the community. According to Media Matters, Trump surrogate Sean Hannity also misrepresented Biden's words to his radio and television audiences at least 17 times in July.
On July 10, the Trump campaign postponed a rally planned for the next day in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director citing "safety reasons because of Tropical Storm Fay". On July 15, Trump announced that he had promoted former deputy campaign manager Bill Stepien to campaign manager, replacing Brad Parscale.
On July 19, in an interview aired on Fox News, Trump called the network's poll showing Biden leading by 8% "fake", further saying he would "have to see" if he would accept a loss in the election, citing postal voting as a way it would be rigged against him. According to CNN, "There is no credible evidence that mail-in voting is rife with corruption," and "the concerted push by Trump to delegitimize mail-in ballots is raising alarm bells among Republican operatives, who are worried the President's demand for in-person voting will mainly serve to dampen turnout among his own supporters."
August 2020
On August 5, Trump announced that he was considering hosting his GOP convention acceptance speech from the White House, saying "It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security." Fox News reported public criticism of the announcement, including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and cited the Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibits executive-branch federal employees other than the president and vice president from engaging in partisan political activity. On August 6, it was reported that the Commission on Presidential Debates had rejected the campaign's request to move or add a debate to early September, before states begin early voting. The first debate is scheduled for September 29.
On August 14, Trump gathered about 300 police officers who support him at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and asked the crowd whether "Sleepy Joe" or "Slow Joe" was a better nickname for his opponent. The former name, which Trump has frequently used, provoked a louder response. He stated that "Putin and Kim Jong-un and President Xi of China, they're not sleepy. We can't have slow, sleepy people dealing with them." On August 17, Miles Taylor, former chief of staff to former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, published an op-ed in The Washington Post and featured in an ad from Republican Voters Against Trump. In the ad, Taylor says, "What we saw [over] 2 1/2 years in that administration, was terrifying." He says that when the DHS raised national security concerns, Trump "wasn't interested in those things," and attempted to exploit the department "for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda," including by withholding federal wildfire aid to California because he lacked support in the state. Taylor asserts that "Years of DHS planning for a pandemic threat have been largely wasted," and concludes: "Given what I experienced ... I have to support Joe Biden for president."
On August 20, Trump said in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, that "Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left movement that seeks to destroy the American way of life. They don't want energy, they don't want guns, they don't want religion." Later that day, Trump tweeted against Biden, the Obamas and mail-in voting. The campaign also released a digital ad suggesting that Hunter Biden used his father's vice presidency to personally profit from a Chinese bank (which Hunter denied in 2019). That night, Biden accepted his party's presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
On August 22, The New York Times reported that Trump would speak on all four nights (only one night being customary) of the 2020 Republican National Convention scheduled for the next week, that nearly half of the keynote speakers would be Trump family members, and that two former producers of The Apprentice would be coordinating the event. On August 23, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller stated that the campaign was "conserving money right now and focusing a little bit more smartly and a little more effectively on the states that are voting early," while Politico reports that "even in most of those early-voting states, Biden has dominated Trump" regarding television ad spending. On the first night of the convention (which had less viewers than both the 2016 convention and the 2020 Democratic event), Donald Trump Jr. said his father's policies had been "like rocket fuel to the economy ... especially to the middle class," while
September 2020
On September 2, Trump told WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, that people should vote twice—once in person and again by mail—to see if anyone stops them from committing this illegal act. When CNN asked U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr for his input, Barr claimed he did not know whether it was illegal to vote twice. Barr also told CNN that he believed that China was the biggest active threat to U.S. election security (contradicting U.S. intelligence, which had identified Russia) and that foreign adversaries would likely sow the system with fraudulent mail-in ballots (although he admitted he had no evidence of this).
On September 3, Trump spoke in Pennsylvania. He encouraged voters to vote in person, referencing potential mail fraud or ballots going missing. He also focused on topics of the economy and public safety in light of mass protests and riots. He attacked Biden for mixed messages on fracking and for wearing a mask so much during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New York Times reported on September 5 that the Trump campaign had spent $58 million of donor money on legal bills, far exceeding the levels of his predecessors at similar points in their campaigns. The spending included routine matters, and legal work involving the Russia investigation and his impeachment, as well as relating to enforcement of nondisclosure agreements with former associates and his personal business interests.
On September 7, The New York Times reported the campaign might be facing a cash crunch, having spent more than $800 million of the $1.1 billion raised from early 2019 through July. The Times reported the campaign had engaged in profligate spending until the new campaign manager Bill Stepien imposed controls. The next day, Trump stated he was prepared to spend his own money if necessary.
From September 8–12, the Trump campaign released a "Support Our Troops" advertisement with a picture of silhouetted Russian Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets and soldiers carrying at least one Russian AK-74 assault rifle, that drew international commentary.
On September 10, The Washington Post reported that campaign manager Bill Stepien had already reduced spending on television ads. "Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden's campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign," the reporters said.
October 2020
On October 2, two hours after it was announced that White House senior advisor Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19, Trump tweeted that both he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive as well and would immediately go into quarantine. As a result, they cancelled all in-person campaign events scheduled in the coming days, including a rally in Orlando-Sanford International Airport. Several other White House members and associates tested positive for the virus, including Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien.
The Trump campaign ran Facebook advertisements featuring fake photos altered to show Joe Biden wearing an earpiece. The advertisements included captions including: "Who is in Joe's ear?", and that Biden "declined an earpiece inspection" at the debate. Asked to comment on the advertisements, the Trump campaign claimed that they were "obvious satire".
On October 7, Vice President Pence participated in a debate with Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for vice president on the Biden ticket, that was held by USA Today and moderated by Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief of the newspaper.
Trailing in polls during the month leading to the election, Trump became increasingly insistent that his political adversaries be indicted, including Biden, former president Obama and Hillary Clinton, and that documents be declassified and released, including Clinton's emails.
Six weeks after the Republican convention, the Trump campaign canceled all television and radio advertising in Ohio, Iowa and New Hampshire, and substantially reduced advertising in four other states.
On October 15, Biden and Trump hosted separate town hall speeches, in lieu of a second debate.
On October 22, the candidates participated in a second and final debate in Nashville. In contrast to the first debate, the microphones of both candidates were muted at select times. Trump pressed Biden on renewed allegations that during his time as vice president, members of his family had personally profited from his position in Ukraine and China, to which Biden pointed out Trump's own scandals regarding those countries. Trump repeatedly asked why Biden had not delivered on his 2020 campaign promises during his eight years in the White House, to which Biden responded, "we had a Republican Congress."
Election Day and beyond
Early on November 4, despite the fact that no clear winner of the election had been determined, Trump declared victory from the White House, stating that he "did win the election". At that point, results from states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia were unclear. Although Trump was leading in the vote count of those states at the time, experts believed that many of the still-uncounted votes—which included votes from large cities and mail-in ballots—would turn out to favor Biden.
On November 5, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump campaign to stop vote-counting in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign had alleged that its observers were not given access to observe the vote, but during the hearing, its lawyers admitted that its observers were already present in the vote-counting room. Also that day, a state judge dismissed another lawsuit by the Trump campaign that alleged that in Georgia, late-arriving ballots were counted. The judge ruled that no evidence had been produced that the ballots were late. Meanwhile, in Michigan, a state judge dismissed the Trump's campaign's lawsuit requesting a pause in vote-counting to allow access to observers, as the judge noted that vote-counting had already finished in Michigan. That judge also noted that the official complaint did not state "why", "when, where, or by whom" an election observer was allegedly blocked from observing ballot-counting in Michigan.
On November 5, the Trump Victory in Wisconsin group declared it would be "chasing our absentee ballots over in Pennsylvania" for people who had yet to vote. Also, that day, the Kenosha for Trump group sent an email urging "volunteers to make phone calls to Pennsylvania Trump supporters to return their absentee ballots". However, votes had to be postmarked by November 3 to count as legal votes in Pennsylvania, and Trump himself had described late votes as election fraud.
By November 6, a growing number of Trump officials had admitted that the incumbent's loss was probable. On that day, election-calling organization Decision Desk HQ forecast that Trump had lost the election to Biden.
By November 7, news organizations ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Reuters, and the New York Times forecast that Trump had lost the election to Biden.
Trump–Raffensperger phone call
On January 2, 2021, during an hour-long conference call, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the state's vote totals by the 11,780 votes he needed to win the state. During the call, Trump falsely suggested that Raffensperger could have committed a criminal offense. On January 11, the phone call was cited in a new article of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives.
Alternate electors
Self-declared "alternate electors" voted in protest; these votes had no legal validity. Well over 100 Republican representatives promised to contest the counting ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Experts debated whether Trump was trying to perform a self-coup.
January 6 United States Capitol attack
On January 6, 2021, Trump spoke at a "March to Save America" rally on the Ellipse, where he encouraged the crowd to "fight like hell" and said he would be marching with them to the United States Capitol, although he did not join them in the end. The rioters broke into the Senate Chamber where the electoral college ballots were being counted, causing both the House and Senate to be evacuated. Five people died from the events, while dozens more were injured, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened over 170 investigations into the events.
Polling
Opinion polls conducted in 2020 almost always showed Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading Trump nationally in general election matchups, with the former vice president's advantage usually extending beyond the margin of sampling error. The Trump campaign dismissed polls throughout the election season, noting how they erroneously predicted a Hillary Clinton victory in the 2016 presidential election. The sentiment has reflected a greater public distrust of polls in general, with several studies including one by the Pew Research Center showing that even when Biden lead Trump by a significant margin nationally, a majority of people still believed that Trump would win the election.
After keeping pace with Biden and even leading him in some key states throughout the spring, Trump's approval rating significantly weakened in June and July, causing him to fall behind in most of those battleground states as well as states that historically vote Republican such as Georgia, Texas and Kansas. By July 4, 2020, Politico reported that Trump was "trailing [Biden] by double digits in recent polls". A mid-July Washington Post/ABC News poll showed Biden's double-digit lead holding.
Trump, however, began to bounce back in early August. A national poll conducted then showed Biden leading by just three percent nationally. Trump also began to improve in state polls, such as in Iowa, where a poll showed Trump leading Biden by 48% to 45%, six percentage points less than Trump won the state with in 2016, but an improvement from where Trump's popularity was in the few months prior. Internal polls commissioned by the campaign showed Trump tied with or ahead of Biden in 17 key states, while a CNN poll showed Biden up by just one percentage point in 15 battleground states. Towards the end of the month though, Biden's advantage began to grow again, as Trump found himself down several points nationally in three highly rated polls: Fox News who had Biden leading 49% to 42%, the NBC/Wall Street Journal who had Biden leading 50% to 41%, and The Washington Post/ABC News who had Biden up 53% to 41%.
Trump got a slight bounce following the 2020 Republican National Convention, after which a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Biden's national lead reduced to seven points. By the end of August, Trump was polling ahead of Biden in key states such as Ohio where he led 50% to 45%, and was polling neck-and-neck with the Democratic candidate in other battleground states such as Florida.
Finances
Trump began fundraising for his reelection campaign immediately after his inauguration, whereas his predecessors had waited years to do this. By September 2020, Trump's 2020 reelection effort, including the Republican National Committee, had spent over $800 million. At that time, Trump had not yet contributed any of his own money to his reelection effort, although he was reportedly considering contributing $100 million. (He had, by contrast, contributed $66 million of his own money to his 2016 campaign.) Bloomberg News said, "it would be unprecedented for an incumbent president to put his own money toward winning a second term."
Funding pace
At the end of the first quarter of 2017, the campaign's three committees ("Donald J. Trump for President", "Trump Victory", and "Trump Make America Great Again Committee") reported raising a combined $13.2 million, the majority of which had come from small donors.
Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee ultimately raised a combined $55 million in the first quarter. According to the National Review's Kelly Jane Torrance, Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee had raised roughly $16 million in the same period of Obama's first term.
On March 17, 2017, the campaign saw what its highest single-day contribution total was, with the campaign and its joint-fundraising-committee raising a combined total of $314,000. By the end of May the RNC had raised more than $62 million in 2017. The RNC had already received more online donations than they had in the entire year of 2016.
On April 14, 2019, the campaign announced that it had raised $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, far outpacing the campaigns of his individual Democratic opponents in the same period. Average donations were $34.26, and nearly 99 percent of donations to the campaign were $200 or less. In addition, the Republican National Committee brought in $45.8 million in first-quarter 2019.
Notable expenditures and allegations of grifting
In June 2018, ProPublica reported that Trump Organization properties had received "at least $16.1 million...from his campaign, Republican organizations, and government agencies" since late 2015. In October 2019, OpenSecrets found that total spending on Trump properties had increased to $16.8 million even when just considering payments made by the Trump campaign and other Republican political campaigns and PACs (leaving aside the government agencies).
During the first three months of 2017, the Trump 2020 campaign reported spending $6.3 million, of which nearly $500,000 (over 6% of its spending) was to companies owned by Trump. In the Trump 2020 campaign's first two years (2017 and 2018), it paid more than $890,000 in rent for space in Trump Tower, while the Republican National Committee paid $225,000. As of October 2020, the campaign's committees had directed more than $17.9 million of campaign donor money to Trump properties, while the Republican National Committee had paid $3.0 million.
In a period spanning 2015–2020, the Trump campaign (including its 2016 and 2020 versions) used at least $58.4 million of donor funds to pay for legal and compliance work. (This was more than 5 times what the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee had paid for legal and compliance work during an equivalent period eight years earlier.) Federal Election Commission filings do not reveal how much the Trump campaign spent on any specific case as contrasted with routine legal work. To look at a narrower slice of this spending, in the third quarter of 2017, the Trump campaign spent $4.1 million (27% of its expenditures) on legal fees, including the personal legal expenses of Trump and his family. By this point, 10% of the campaign's overall spending since the beginning of the year had been on legal fees.
As of March 2019, Trump's campaign had spent almost twice as much on Facebook and Google ads as the entire Democratic field combined. During 2020, Donald Trump's campaign had spent $201 million on digital marketing, and $175 million on traditional television ads. Comparatively, the Biden campaign during this same time frame had significantly ramped up their efforts, spending $166 million on digital marketing, and $250 million on traditional television ads, respectively, outspending Trump's campaign in television ads, but falling behind in digital marketing. Donald Trump and Joe Biden's advertisement efforts during the 2020 election cycle are the two most expensive in history.
Groups supporting Trump
The Republican Party
On January 23, 2019, the Republican National Committee, in a unanimous vote, informally endorsed the president.
Super PACs
Super PACs supporting Trump's reelection campaign include Committee to Defend the President, Great America PAC, and Great America Committee. The Great America PAC received donations from, among others, former racer Walker Evans and Insperity executive Jay Mincks. The Committee to Defend the President PAC received contributions from, among others, Enterprise Products executive Ralph S. Cunningham.
The Center for Public Integrity published an analysis of 2017 first-quarter federal campaign spending records which revealed that two Super PACs supporting Trump, Great America PAC and Committee to Defend the President, had spent a combined $1.32 million on the 2020 election campaign. Ted Harvey serves as the chairman of the Committee to Defend the President. Eric Beach and Ed Rollins serve as co-chairmen of Great America PAC. Both PACs have previously been accused by the FEC of poorly maintaining financial records and had been threatened with penalties. The Center for Public Integrity also found that several other pro-Trump PACs had already been founded in 2017, but most of them had yet to be very active. One such PAC was America First Action, which was founded by the CEO of a political consulting firm for which Trump's 2020 campaign treasurer is the senior vice president.
On May 17, 2017, Mike Pence filed FEC paperwork to form Great America Committee, a PAC that would be headed by his former campaign staffers Nick Ayers and Marty Obst. This is the first time in U.S. history a sitting vice president has founded such a political organization.
On August 7, Marc Lotter, a spokesperson for Mike Pence, confirmed to MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that the vice president had hosted Republican donors, including mega-donors Charles and David Koch, at Number One Observatory Circle.
At the end of the third quarter, the FEC calculated that in 2017 super PACS and other outside groups supporting Trump had spent more than $2 million.
Table displays the amount that groups have reported to the FEC they have spent in support of Trump's candidacy from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2020.
Other groups
In late January 2017, several members of Trump's 2016 campaign staff formed America First Policies, a pro-Trump political nonprofit. Those involved included former deputy campaign chairs Rick Gates and David Bossie. Brad Parscale and Katrina Pierson were also involved. Additionally involved were Nick Ayers and Marty Obst, both of whom served as advisors to Mike Pence during the 2016 campaign. Trump's former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh has also joined the organization. Near the end of May, members of the organization (including Walsh) participated in meetings at the RNC's D.C. offices with members Trump's family to discuss campaign strategy.
In 2017, Matt Braynard, a key member of Trump's 2016 campaign staff, established the organization Look Ahead America. The organization took steps to target inactive voters in places such as New Hampshire, a state Trump came close to winning in 2016. Look Ahead America claimed it would not coordinate its efforts with the president. In the week after the 2020 election, Braynard launched a group called The Voter Integrity Fund to review public records for indications of election malfeasance. On December 1, 2020, he tweeted that Biden's election was illegitimate: "If the issues we raised are not resolved...[Biden] cannot be considered 'president' but [should] instead [be] referred to as the #presidentialoccupant." Trump retweeted Braynard's comment several hours later.
In August 2018, a group called the 45 Alliance was formed. All three of the group's officers had served on Trump's transition team, and two of them also served in Trump's White House. During the calendar year in which the 45 Alliance was formed, it was entirely funded by Trump for America, a nonprofit that supported Trump's 2016 transition ($150,000); by America First Policies ($150,000); and by the Republican National Committee ($75,000). Neil Corkery is in charge of the 45 Alliance's finances. "He has ties to several high-profile dark money operations," Walker Davis wrote, "like the Wellspring Committee and Judicial Crisis Network. In 2018, an anonymous million-dollar contribution to President Trump's inauguration was linked to him."
Black Voices for Trump was an initiative of the campaign which raised support for Donald Trump among African Americans.
In August 2023, Harrison Floyd, the executive director of Black Voices for Trump, was charged with three felonies as part of the prosecution of Donald Trump in Georgia.
Technology
The Trump campaign used "geofencing". This technology detects when a smartphone is within a narrow geographic area like a church or a sports stadium, and it captures identifying information from that device. This allowed political marketers to gather names, addresses, and voter registration status of the people who were present at the event and who presumably share some ideological, religious, or other demographic affinities. In January 2020, The New York Times reported that "the Trump campaign is far ahead of the Democratic Party in the use of this technology".