Celebrity1 min(s) read
Published 18:26 21 Jul 2020 GMT
This November, President Trump will be vying to win a second term in office, and it has now emerged that he has reportedly earned $2.2 million from his 2020 campaign so far.
Trump has been able to make money during what is typically a costly time for candidates by funding his campaign using his donors' money instead of his own, Forbes has revealed.
Two joint fundraising committees - named Trump Victory and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee - are working in conjunction with the Republican party to have Trump reelected.
They have pushed $2.3 million into Trump's private businesses since he took office in 2016, and the Republican National Committee has spent an additional $2.4 million at Trump properties.
In the video below, Donald Trump wears a mask in public for the first time:
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Forbes reports that alongside the Republican party, it's now been estimated that $6.9 million has been spent on the president's private businesses since he entered the White House.
This comes as the Facebook Ad Library has revealed that the Trump campaign's spend on adverts on the social media website topped $2.2 million between June 21 and June 27.
Comparatively, Trump's rival Joe Biden has spent just over $1.5 million between these dates on Facebook.
The campaign watchdog Opensecrets.org reported that the total costs of the 2016 presidential and congressional elections was $6.5 billion.
This is a reflection of the fact that the cost of running for president has increased dramatically in the age of social media, with televised debates, social media's impact, and the networked nature of the modern world requiring candidates to fork out more money.
As a result, some countries like the UK are imposing limits on how much candidates can spend prior to an election with The Washington Post reporting that parties can only spend a maximum of $29.5 million in the year leading up to an election.
