Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that it is easier for him to self-fund his 2016 presidential campaign as he faces off against Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Norah O'Donnell, a co-anchor on CBS This Morning, asked Trump about the drastic fundraising differences between him and Clinton so far. Trump finished May with just $1.3 million cash on hand, a lesser amount than many congressional campaigns.
"You saw the numbers. Hillary Clinton and her campaign allies have spent $23 million in eight battleground states on television advertising," O'Donnell said. "The Trump campaign has spent zero."
"Isn't that impressive?" Trump said.
"Do you need to fight back?" O'Donnell asked.
"Well, let me ask you, isn't it impressive when we're even and she's spending $23 million and I'm spending, and I get no credit for that. When I spent less money than anybody else and won the primaries like in New Hampshire, I spent a million dollars, and a certain opponent spent $8 million, and I won in a landslide," Trump said. "Nobody said, ‘Gee, he did it without spending the money.’ That's called good business practices, and I don't know how you can spend.
"By the way, we're raising quite a bit of money. I'm raising it for the party. I'd rather just spend my own money. To me, it's simpler. But you don't need to spend $1.2 billion. In other words, she's going to spend $300 million a month because you're talking about like four months. And I just, you know, I talk to my people all the time and say why do you have to spend $1 billion? It doesn't make sense."