US election 2020: Trump's billion-dollar campaign has lost 'cash advantage'

US President Donald Trumpfacing the possibility of a cash crunch, said on Tuesday he would spend his own money to finance his 2020 presidential campaign against Democrat Joe Biden if he had to.

Money is supposed to have one of the great advantages of incumbency for any president of the United States of America.

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According a New York Times report, Trump had an upper hand of $200 million over Biden when hefiled for re-election on the day of his inauguration,earlier than any other modern president. The motive behind this headstart was to give him a decisive financial advantage this year.

However, merely five months later, Trump's financial supremacy has evaporated. Out of the$1.1 billionhis campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, over$800 million has been spent.

With the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest over racism and police brutality commanding attention in recent months, Biden is seeking to maintain his edge by painting the Republican president as an ineffectual leader who thrives on chaos and has left the working class behind. Anda cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election will only add to it.

Trumphas struggled to change the contours of the campaign despite highly charged rhetoric on racial polarization and "law and order" intended to motivate his base and draw new supporters in suburban parts of key swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

UnderBrad Parscale, the former campaign manager of Trump, splurgedmore than $350 million went to fundraising operations, as no expense was spared in finding new donors online.

Since 2019, Trump, the RNC, and their shared committees have spent $145 million on costs related to direct mail, almost $42 million on digital list acquisition and rentals (to expand their list of email addresses) and tens of millions more in online advertising for new donors.

Parscalefaced the president's wrath after his Tulsa Rally attracted just a sparse crowd despite claiming that many hundreds of thousands have applied for the ticket.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who took over from Brad Parscale in mid-July, told reporters on a campaign press call on Tuesday that "we are now carefully monitoring the budget."

Stepien said the campaign will have more resources to spend than it had in Trump's 2016 victory and that "we're very comfortable and confident" in how money is now being spent and where.

Critics of the campaign's management say the lavish spending was ineffective.Trump enters Autumn trailing in most national and battleground state polls.

Whereas,afterposting a record-setting haul of nearly $365 million in August, Biden has surpassed him as a fundraising powerhouse.

Despite spending heavily on television and other sorts of advertisements Trump is lagging behind rival Biden in polls. As a result of which the Trump campaign slashed its August television spending, mostly abandoning the airwaves during the party conventions.