By Jason Lange
(Reuters) –Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign and his Republican Party last month narrowed the cash gap with the president Joe BidenFinancial disclosures Thursday showed both parties have been building up their war chests ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Trump had $116 million in the bank at the end of May, more than double the amount a month earlier, while the Republican Party, which is raising money with Trump to support his bid, had $54 million in cash, according to disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
Their combined $170 million was still about $40 million less than the $212 million Biden and the Democratic Party reportedly had in the bank, according to a statement they issued ahead of official filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The gap between the two camps has been narrowing since April, when Biden and his party had a $58 million cash advantage.
Trump’s fundraising has soared since then, including in the weeks leading up to his May 30 conviction on charges that he falsified company records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
Biden and Democrats said they raised $85 million in May, compared to $141 million reported by Trump and Republicans.
Both camps are also ramping up fundraising from billionaires who are allowed to give unlimited amounts of money to groups affiliated with the campaigns known as super PACs.
A separate filing on Thursday revealed that conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Pittsburgh-based Mellon banking family, donated $50 million last month to a pro-Trump super PAC known as MAGA Inc.
MAGA Inc has ramped up its television ad spending in support of Trump’s bid, with the flood of spending in recent weeks helping pro-Trump allies outpace Biden’s allies.
MAGA Inc disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission that it raised more than $68 million from donors last month, with most of the money coming from Mellon and another $10 million from billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein, who run the founded shipping and packaging organization Uline. company from their basement in 1980.
Mellon, who lives in Wyoming and is rarely photographed, is an amateur pilot who has invested in and managed transportation-related businesses. Forbes estimates that the Mellon family is worth approximately $14.1 billion.
The billionaire Winklevoss twins, founders of cryptocurrency company Gemini, said they had donated $1 million in bitcoin to support Trump, but did not indicate where the donations had been sent.
On Biden’s side, billionaire Mike Bloomberg has donated nearly $20 million to two super PACs supporting the president’s reelection efforts, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
(Reporting by Jason Lange in Tequisquiapan, Mexico; Editing by Diane Craft and Sonali Paul)
