Donald Trump's campaign touted an $80 million figure for its July fundraising, but just $36.7 million of that total went directly to the campaign. | AP Photo 2016 Trump paid dearly to boost fundraising The campaign increased its spending in July, but not on building a staff or field organization.

The Donald Trump campaign's boasts of a formidable fundraising month in July spooked Democrats who feared their financial advantage could be slipping.

But a closer inspection of the campaign finance report filed just before Saturday's midnight deadline indicates the haul came at a steep price and that the campaign was still not dedicating resources to catching up on building the staff and field organization that all previous presidential efforts have required.


Though the campaign touted an $80 million figure for its July fundraising, just $36.7 million of that total went directly to the campaign. The rest came in through joint fundraising vehicles with the Republican National Committee and state parties. At least $9.5 million of that money is off limits for spending on the election because it's designated for the RNC's convention, headquarters and legal accounts. Plus, the RNC is considering spending its money down-ballot instead of supporting Trump as tensions boil over between the party's apparatus and its defiant nominee.

The money the Trump campaign raised also didn't come cheap. The campaign more than doubled its spending from the previous month to $18.5 million in July, far more than in any other period of the campaign. Most of that money went toward expanding the campaign's online fundraising operation.

A full 45 percent, or $8.4 million, went to Giles-Parscale, the San Antonio-based digital marketing firm that has done Trump's online advertising. (The company had never worked for a campaign before 2016.) The campaign also paid $100,000 to the Prosper Group for fundraising consulting.

Meanwhile, spending on the 84-person staff and field organizing barely increased from the previous month, to just $392,000 and $432,000, respectively. The campaign dropped much more — $1.8 million — on hats and other merchandise.

By comparison, the Hillary Clinton campaign in July spent $2.9 million on its 703-person payroll and $25.8 million on media.

The Trump campaign did succeed in improving its cash position, ending July with $38.4 million on hand. But the Clinton campaign and its allied super PACs still started August with a major financial advantage, with about $97 million stockpiled, compared with $43 million for Trump and his allies.

Trump also lagged behind the amount Mitt Romney's campaign raised four years ago: more than $40 million.

The real-estate showman pumped another $2 million of his own money into the campaign, bringing his total self-funding to $52 million. He also continued patronizing his own businesses, spending at least $732,000 on his private jet and at his properties in New York, Miami and Palm Beach.

To be sure, Trump trounced a crowded primary field by dispensing with conventional notions of campaign management. But the bare-bones approach has served him less well in the general election.

The latest report, which runs through the end of July, predates Trump's long-awaited first ad buy, as well as last week's shake-up that replaced Paul Manafort with Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway at the top of the campaign.

The filing did list a $1,713.40 "contribution refund" to Manafort, who did not take a salary for his work on Trump's behalf.

The consulting firm of ousted campaign manager Corey Lewandowski also continued to receive $20,000 from the Trump campaign in July, despite Lewandowski's firing in June and new position as a CNN commentator.

The report also, for the first time, showed payments to Alan Garten, Trump's corporate attorney, who had been accused of improperly performing work for the campaign.

Legal fees for the campaign's outside law firm, Jones Day, gobbled up more than $660,000. The Clinton campaign paid its outside counsel about a sixth of that.

The Democrats' financial lead extended to the parties and allied super PACs. The Democratic National Committee's $32.4 million beat the GOP's $27.2 million, despite the hacked emails whose release by WikiLeaks forced Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign.

The main super PAC backing Clinton, Priorities USA Action, brought in another $9.9 million, mostly from megadonors Daniel Abraham and Donald Sussman. Meanwhile, the Great America PAC, which has spent the most of ads supporting Trump, raised just $2.5 million. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer gave $2 million to an anti-Clinton super PAC called Make America Number 1, which was formerly a pro-Ted Cruz PAC called Keep the Promise I.