Politics

Trump Meets With Fundraisers, Lobbyists At Trump Tower

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

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Phillip Stucky Political Reporter
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Donald Trump continued his push for unity Thursday by meeting with political power players in New York City.

While most candidates started their fundraising plan two years ago, Trump started his Tuesday with a swank gathering of party leaders, fundraisers, and lobbyists at Trump Tower in New York. There they presumably strategized the best ways to move forward financially.

Until now, Trump has earned the nomination by running a fairly small, low-cost campaign. Hillary Clinton has a much larger campaign, with close to 500 staff on the payroll, and has outspent Trump by a huge margin. Trump to date has spent roughly $50 million dollars, and only has a national staff of 70 people. He makes those numbers because he has a limited field staff, no pollsters, no data team, and a streamlined policy team, essentially all the groups that any normal candidate needs to win a race.

The first meeting of the day included Republican Party Chair Reince Priebus, along with several traditional party fundraisers. The first item on the agenda? Brainstorming how to match Trump’s stated goal of raising $1 billion dollars for the general election. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign director, already started to adjust expectations from the high figure.

“There is no reason to think (Trump) can’t continue his low-cost style of campaigning. Lewandowski praised the campaign’s small numbers as agile and efficient; something that Trump will bring to the federal government. Some of the attendees of the meeting suggested a lower, more attainable number of $500 million.

The head of the Republican Party of Ohio stated Wednesday that Trump’s comments and demeanor could be an asset on the fundraising circuit, since they make him an “exciting person, with great ideas … There’s a lot of interest there.”

Shortly after that meeting, Trump will meet with lobbyists and representatives of the major industries that work with the federal government. Groups representing the defense, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and commerce industries will be present to pitch their ideas and needs to the Republican front-runner. One group, Aerospace Industries Association, (AIA) will represent Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon in their quest for more government contracts. The meeting, which has been on the books for a few weeks according to an insider who shared under condition of anonymity, will be filled with presentations from representatives of each group.

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