WASHINGTON — Don ald Trump likes to boast about his enormous wealth and how he doesn’t need anyone else’s money to pay for his presidential campaign. That hasn’t stopped tens of thousands of people from chipping in with checks as small as $10 to let the Republican candidate know they’re behind him.
Trump has taken in 73,942 contributions, a total that surpasses several GOP rivals, despite the billionaire businessman’s pledge to finance his own campaign. Financial reports filed last week show that more than 70 percent of the $3.9 million he raised from July through September came from people giving $200 or less. That rate of small-donor contributions is second only to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The average Trump contribution was $50.46, his campaign said.
The contributors are in small towns, suburbs and big cities. He’s raised money from hundreds of retirees, ranchers, dentists, physicians, real estate executives and financial consultants.
For Ansley Pascoli, 64, a retiree in Sandy Springs, Ga., the money is intended as a symbol of support. She gave the Trump campaign $25 and bought several hats and T-shirts.
“One of my reasons for wanting to support him is that even though I know that he does have a lot of money, I don’t feel that it’s right for him to have to bear the burden,” she said in a telephone interview when asked why she was giving money to someone who has bragged about not needing campaign cash.
“And even though my contribution was small, I want him to have the feeling that there are other people that are behind him,” she said.
It was a sentiment expressed by many of those who appear on Trump’s contributor list and is evidence of the passion he has elicited from voters angry over the country’s direction and craving a political outsider.
Illinois retiree Beverly Perlson, who’s from a military family, said she was immediately drawn to Trump because of his attention to veterans’ issues and his promise to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The first time she heard him speak about the issue, she said, “I absolutely fell in love with Donald Trump at that moment.”
Filings show the majority of Trump’s campaign expenses in the last quarter were financed by contributions, not by Trump himself.
