Former President

Donald

Trump’s fundraising increased last month, but his political operation is still struggling to catch up to President Biden and the Democratic Party in terms of money coming in.

Trump’s campaign and his Save America political action committee, two key committees in his political operation, reported raising a combined $15.9 million in February and ended the month with more than $37 million, according to Federal Election filings Commission on Wednesday evening.

That’s up from January, when the committees raised just $13.8 million. When Trump handily won the Nevada and New Hampshire primaries in February, the prospects of a Republican challenger overtaking him in the presidential race were significantly reduced.

Americans know that four years ago they were better off with President Trump than with Crooked Joe Biden and his disastrous policies. “We need a return to America First policies that have successfully kept our country safe and boosted the economy for all Americans,” Trump’s campaign said.

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communication

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said director Steven Cheung in a statement.

Biden has raised $155 million in cash for the 2024 campaign

Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign communications director, was unimpressed, saying in a statement: “If Donald Trump put these kinds of numbers on The Apprentice, he would fire himself.”

But here’s why he doesn’t get it: His extreme, toxic agenda of banning abortion, cutting Social Security and promoting political violence repels donors and does exactly (asterisk) nothing (asterisk) to to earn the support of the voters who will decide these elections.

Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, said his political operation raised $53 million last month and ended February with $155 million. That includes Biden’s joint fundraising with the Democratic National Committee. The full picture will not be available until April, when a number of committees in his political operation will submit reports.

Trump wants money from Republican supporters. That’s how the party works. There could be a friction there

His main campaign account raised $21 million in February, according to its latest filing with the FEC, and ended the month with $71 million.

The monthly numbers reported by the two Trump committees are critical to his fundraising operation but are only part of the full picture, while other committees will report their final numbers in April. The Save America Committee has paid the majority of Trump’s legal fees in his various lawsuits, with 84% of the expenses going toward legal fees.

Trump’s February numbers did not include any fundraising efforts at the Republican National Committee. Earlier this month, days after his last major opponent, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the Republican Party primaries, Trump’s political team took over the cash-strapped RNC and installed a new leadership team.

This week’s campaign set up joint fundraising activities with the RNC.

Michelle L. Price writes for the Associated Press.