REVEALED: ALLEGED $500M DONATION TO HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN BY MUHAMMAD BUHARI CONFIRMED AS FEC REVEALS FINAL CAMPAIGN SPENDINGS

REVEALED: ALLEGED $500M DONATION TO HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN BY MUHAMMAD BUHARI CONFIRMED AS FEC REVEALS FINAL CAMPAIGN SPENDINGS

 
FEC report shows Donald Trump laid out $94m in last push for White House while Hillary Clinton spent $132m and cemented herself as biggest fundraiser

 
Donald Trump’s campaign spent about $94m in its final push for the White House, according to new fundraising reports.

The Republican continued his campaign-long trend of spending far less than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Her campaign spent almost $132m in its closing weeks, according to reports filed on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. The latest reports cover 20 October to 28 November.

Over the course of the primary and general elections the Trump campaign raised about $340m including $66m out of his own pocket. The Clinton campaign, which maintained a longer and more concerted fundraising focus, brought in about $581m.

Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital director who was empowered with spending decisions across the campaign, credited strategic last-minute investments with helping propel the political newcomer to victory.

The campaign and Republican party spent about $5m in get-out-the-vote digital advertising targeted in the final few days to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida. It proved critical; some of those states were won by razor-thin margins.

“You think, what if we hadn’t spent that?” Parscale said. “We might not have won.”

Another investment that he said paid dividends was $7m to air a two-minute “closing” television commercial. “Our movement is about replacing the failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people,” Trump said as images from his rallies rolled across the screen.

The final FEC report showed the extent of the Trump advertising splurge. The campaign spent nearly $39m on last-minute TV ads and another $29m on digital advertising and consulting work done by Parscale’s firm.

Clinton’s campaign placed a far greater emphasis than Trump on television advertising, a more traditional way of reaching swaths of voters. She spent $72m on TV ads and about $16m on internet ads in the final weeks.

The former secretary of state also spent more than $12m on travel — about double what Trump spent. Clinton, who not only had a money advantage over Trump but a staffing edge, spent more than $4m on a nearly 900-strong payroll.

Still, Clinton’s top campaign aides have acknowledged in post-election appearances that it didn’t always spend money in the right places.

Her campaign manager Robby Mook said at a gathering of political strategists and journalists last week at Harvard University that he regretted not putting more staff in Michigan. When the state certified its results — 20 days after the election— Trump had won by just under 11,000 votes.

Outside groups that spent money on the presidential election also filed reports on Thursday.

Trump got help from the super political action committees Future 45, Make America Number 1 and Rebuilding America Now.

Future 45 and a partner nonprofit that does not disclose donors spent late in the campaign but became Trump’s biggest outside investors. The Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, together gave $10m to Future 45 in the final weeks of the campaign, the new reports show.

Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, whom Trump named this week as head of the Small Business Administration, gave $1m to the group in October. She earlier gave $6m to Rebuilding America Now.

Make America Number 1 benefited from a $1m donation by the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, now an executive on the Trump transition team.

On Clinton’s side, Priorities USA — which raised and spent more than any super PAC in history — landed $16m in the final weeks of the campaign. That brought its total haul to about $192m.

Some of the group’s final seven-figure contributions came from its most loyal donors: media mogul Haim Saban and investors James Simons and Donald Sussman.

And while the 2016 election is over, the fundraising continues.

The president-elect has raised millions of dollars since 8 November. That money is coming in mostly through purchased merchandise such as hats and ornaments and is paying for Trump’s “thank you” tour, which took him to Ohio and Iowa on Thursday.