As many as three nights a week, Donald Trump has been hosting private dinners at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, schmoozing with some of the Republican Party’s biggest financiers as he races to address a sizable cash shortfall against Joe Biden. There is no request for money from the attendees, which have included Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, and Pepe Fanjul, a sugar magnate, according to people familiar with the sessions.
But advisers to Trump’s campaign hope the charm offensive will eventually pay financial dividends. One of the most pressing issues facing Trump is the financial disparity he and allied groups now face with Biden and the Democratic Party. Democrats have boasted of entering Feb with $130 million. The Trump operation did not release a full total, but his campaign account and the Republican National Committee had around $40 million.
At least two donors who made seven-figure pledges to support Trump this year were nudged to see if they could cut an eight-figure check — meaning $10 million or more. It is an unusually perilous moment for Trump. He recently posted a $91.6 million bond in a civil case in which he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of New York writer E. Jean Carroll.