President Trump’s re-election campaign and groups backing his agenda raised nearly $33 million in just the last three months, an explosion of support driven by small donors, the groups have reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s re-election campaign raised $8.3 million and, when added to the money collected by its two associated groups, the total was $17.7 million in the second reporting quarter. The campaign has $33 million on hand.

It also sped up its shift to small donors. In the new report, it said that 98.5 percent of fundraising was from small donors, though the total was $2.3 million less than the first quarter.

And the super PAC backing the president's agenda, America First Action and its nonprofit affiliate, America First Policies, raised another $15 million.

Those two have raised $47 million since being created in 2017, more than former President Obama’s two outside groups — Organizing for Action and Priorities USA — raised at their two-year mark, which came in Obama’s second term. “The work you’re doing is God’s work,” Obama said at the time in 2014.

America First Policies Chairman Tommy Hicks Jr. said of his group’s fundraising that “the president makes this easy.”

The groups shared their fundraising totals with Secrets as they were presented to the FEC Sunday, the deadline for filing.





Notable in the Trump campaign filing was several thousands of dollars to the new ad and media buying committee called American Made Media Consultants.

Taking a page from the former Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns, the Trump-Pence committee and new campaign manager Brad Parscale pushed to create the committee to create “transparency” and remove media controversy over Parscale’s company handling the media buying, which can be misperceived as hugely profitable because it handles massive transactions.

“I recognize that in becoming campaign manager, my role has changed. I want to make sure that I am running the most transparent campaign possible,” he told Secrets. He has no role in AMMC, but is keeping his digital company, which handles some Trump campaign and Republican National Committee work, in operation.

Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law and senior adviser to Donald J. Trump for President Inc., hailed the domination of donors who gave $200 or less.

“We are thrilled with the continued support of so many Americans who resoundingly approve of Donald Trump’s performance as president,” she said, adding, “The American people clearly see how hard President Trump is working to reclaim their jobs lost to bad trade deals, increase their take home pay through historic tax cuts, and make their communities safer through his immigration enforcement and initial work to build the wall.”

That the two Trump outside committees nearly raised as much as the Trump re-election effort and the two joint committees formed with the Republican National Committee was a point of personal pride for the America First team.

“I’m pretty proud of our team,” said Hicks. He added that supporters are not derailed by negative headlines. “People are a lot smarter than the media gives them credit for. The economy is doing great and people are very happy with what the president is doing on the international stage.”

America First fundraiser Bill White said that because of the group’s work on behalf of Trump’s agenda, including the tax cuts, it is the place those concerned about the 2018 midterm elections are turning to.

A longtime fundraiser on veterans issues and former supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, White added that Trump is bringing new donors because he has a non-politician’s style of making commitments and then keeping them. “He makes a promise. He keeps it. It’s that simple,” said White, who heads the Constellations Group in New York City, and who with his husband has promised to raise over $1 million.

America First has spent on behalf of the 2017 tax reform and against Trump opponents. For example, it funded tax reform rallies, supported the nomination of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel, and ran ads against Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.