Donald Trump defends dismal campaign finance report: 'I understand money better than anybody'
AP Photo/John Locher
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he understands money "far better" than Hillary Clinton, who ended May with $42.5 million cash on hand, and blamed his campaign's anemic fundraising on a lack of support from the Republican Party.
"I understand money better than anybody," Trump told "Today" on Tuesday. "I understand it far better than Hillary, and I'm way up on the economy when it comes to questions on the economy. But we have a party, that, I mean, I'm having more difficulty, frankly, with some of the people in the party than I am with the Democrats because they're just, they don't want to come on."
If Republicans don't get on board with his campaign, Trump said, he'll just keep self-financing. Trump has loaned his campaign $46 million since he launched it last year, according to Reuters.
"[Republicans] will probably, eventually come on," Trump said. "Honestly, if they don't, it's just fine. I can win it either way. I mean, I may be better off winning it the opposite way than the more traditional way."
"Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie asked Trump if he could still win the general election if Clinton raised 42 times what he had.
Trump continued to hammer the Republican Party for not helping him enough.
"I've raised a lot of money," Trump responded. "But you also have to have some help from the party. But I've raised a lot of money. We raised $12 million this weekend. ... And I'm raising that money for the party."
He then noted that he was able to win enough delegates in the primaries to clinch his party's nomination without raising as much outside money as Clinton.
"If it gets to a point, what I'll do is just do what I did in the primaries," Trump said.
He continued: "I spent $55 million of my own money to win the primaries. ... You know, that's a lot of money, by any standard. I may do that again in the general election. I have a lot of cash and I may do it again in the general election. But it would be nice to have some help from the party. If I don't have great support, I'll go a different route."
Watch the full interview below:
ICYMI: @MLauer & @savannahguthrie's full interview with @realdonaldtrump https://t.co/3CWdye0a1J
- TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 21, 2016
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