Donald Trump Will Raise Money For Republicans Just As Soon As He Figures Out How That Benefits Him

What do you people want from me? Leadership? Pffft.

Donald Trump's campaign has decided he's all finished with doing fundraising for "his" party, and won't be holding any more big-money fundraisers to help the Republicans or their "national" "committee" with down-ballot races. Why would he want to waste his time talking to rich donors who'd throw millions of dollars at Republicans instead of holding more rallies where people who are already planning to vote for him can come and scream for Hillary Clinton to be put in jail? Man has to have some priorities.

Trump's national finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, explained that "Trump Victory," the joint group that raised funds for both Trump and the party, had held its final fundraiser last Wednesday, October 19, and seemed perfectly delighted at saying the campaign was finished with that "helping the party" stuff:

“We’ve kind of wound down,” Mnuchin said, referring to formal fundraisers. “But the online fundraising continues to be strong.”

Raise money for the Republican party? Why would Trump do that anyway? They don't even like him. Unlike the joint fundraisers, which split the donations evenly between the campaign and the party, the GOP only gets 20 percent of the online funds. They should be grateful they're getting anything, really.

The Washington Post points out that while Goofus isn't helping his party raise funds any more, those boring do-gooders Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine have been helping out their party like crazy, with another 41 campaign/party fundraisers scheduled between now and November 3. And while Trump had been pulling in good money for the GOP -- $40 million through Trump Victory as of Sept. 30 -- he's not going to schedule any more of that nonsense anymore. But just look at the furious turd-polishing effort being made by Lew Eisenberg, the chair of Trump Victory, as he explains why this is still a great deal for the Republicans:

"Unlike the period from June 1 to today, we have no organized calendar of events for the next 14 days," Eisenberg said. "Rather, when the opportunity presents itself, we will have ad hoc fundraisers" with Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. In addition, he said, "our state finance chairs will continuing to be raising major donor money for the foreseeable future."

Mnuchin said that Trump's refusal to hold any more big fundraisers for his putative party is actually a sign of his commitment to the party and victory, yeah, that's the ticket:

“We have minimized his fundraising schedule over the last month to emphasize his focus on political [events],” Mnuchin said. “Unlike Hillary, who has been fundraising and not out and about, he has constantly been out and about.”

He's out and about! And besides, on November 9, he'll just plain be out. (You still have to vote, people!) Also, just look how much Steven Mnuchin can sound almost exactly like his boss!

“We couldn’t be more pleased with how the fundraising has gone,” he said, adding: “We have big media buys, we have a terrific ground game.”

Sure, Hillary Clinton had raised $499 million as of the end of September compared to Trump's $219 million, but that doesn't matter so much since Donald Trump is a financial genius. He's probably already figured out a way to bankrupt the Republican Party altogether and make a tidy profit for himself.

At the very moment Trump has given up on raising money for his party, Politico reports that Mitch McConnell's super PAC, "Senate Leadership Fund" (there's no "the" in there -- like Talking Heads, only without any good music) has miraculously pulled an astonishing $25 million out of its donors to throw at six close Senate races in the final 13 days of the election. If Trump's going to set himself on fire, at least the Republicans are going to try and hold on to some Senate seats with all the Free Speech money can buy, according to Steven Law, the head of Senate Leadership Fund:

“Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen every liberal Democratic group descend on these races,” Law said. “Democrats feel like the presidential race is in the bag for them and are looking for fresh game in the Senate.”

Why, yes, that is indeed the idea. The huge cash outlay will go to try to keep Republican incumbents in Pennsylvania,   New Hampshire,   North Carolina, and Missouri, and to help Republicans in close races for open seats in Indiana and Nevada. The single biggest chunk, $7.5 million, will be going to Nevada, where Congressman Joe Heck has a small lead over former Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, but Hillary Clinton has been consistently leading Trump in the presidential polls.

Senate Leadership Fund (every part of our brain wants a "the" there) is also getting help from campaign expert Karl Rove, in case it needs someone to shout "It's not over yet!" when the results are in. Mr Law seems like a pretty huge optimist about the whole thing, telling Politico that the group's donors are aware that "we’re going to take casualties but that we’re going to go out guns blazing."

And in the meantime, Donald Trump sure is enjoying holding rallies, where everyone loves him and assures him he'll Make America Great Again.

[ WaPo / Politico (ht to the Rachel Maddow show )