CAMPAIGN FINANCE/ELECTION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Donald J. Trump’s first campaign finance report in July 2015 revealed a shoestring operation run by a handful of loyalists working from a two-room suite in Trump Tower and funded almost entirely by $1.8 million in loans from the candidate. More than three years later, the picture is starkly different. Reports filed this week show that President Trump sits atop a sophisticated data-driven fund-raising machine that has already brought in more than $106 million — a majority of which came from small donors, with none coming from Mr. Trump’s own pocket — and has spent more on his ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, $2 million, than his 2016 effort had spent on the entire campaign in its first report. Even after the costly investments in digital advertising, data analytics and other tools of modern campaigning, the three committees that make up Mr. Trump’s campaign apparatus entered this month with a remarkable $47 million in the bank, according to their filings with the Federal Election Commission.”
–Kenneth P. Vogel, “As Other Republican Candidates Struggle Financially, Trump Stockpiles Cash,” The New York Times online, October 17, 2018