Trump campaign official: We'll combat Clinton's cash with headlines

A top Donald Trump ally told Yahoo News this week that the presumptive GOP nominee doesn’t need nearly as much money as his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Carl Paladino, one of the co-chairs of Trump’s campaign in New York, said Trump can win with less money by using an non-traditional approach focused on dominating press coverage.

“Thats the old conventional campaign question, the first question out of peoples’ mouth is, ‘How much money do you have and can you afford to overwhelm financially in the race?’ This is a completely different type of campaign,” Paladino said.

Campaign-finance reports released this week showed that Trump is raising far less money than Clinton. In May alone, Clinton and the Democratic National Committee brought in more than twice the amount raised by Trump and the Republican National Committee. The records also showed that Trump ended last month with very little cash left on hand. Trump has ramped up his fundraising efforts in the past week, but Paladino claimed the Trump team is not concerned about the gap.

Interestingly, Paladino went on to borrow language from Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and described Trump’s bid as a “political revolution.” Trump made an appeal to Sanders voters in a speech on Wednesday, though Sanders has insisted his supporters won’t vote for a “bigot” like Trump.

Paladino further said Trump does not need a massive campaign war chest because his statements generate press coverage, giving the mogul air time without having to pay for traditional — and expensive — advertisements.

“This is a political revolution that’s taking place right now and our candidate sucks up all the oxygen in a room when he walks into the room. OK? He has a certain flair — OK? — that he adds in his commentary on issues and the press looks forward to it,” Paladino said of Trump. “So, he’s going to continue to get all the earned media, OK?”

Throughout the 2016 presidential race, Trump’s campaign has generated far more coverage than both Clinton and his GOP primary rivals, leading to debates about whether the media was unfairly fueling his rise. The Clinton campaign has said it is content to allow Trump to dominate news cycles because much of his coverage is unfavorable.

Paladino presented a theory for why Clinton is less able to generate media attention.

“The concept — OK? — of having to match Hillary in her fundraising activities, well Hill has to buy ads because she cant be spontaneous in a speech and she doesn’t attract,” Paladino explained.

Television airtime is a major expense for campaigns, but political war chests are also used to establish a ground game and flood key states with staffers. For example, a Cleveland.com report on Monday showed that Trump and the GOP have placed far less staffers than Clinton and the Democrats in the key swing state of Ohio.

Paladino claimed that Trump’s team does have “boots on the ground.” However, he also argued the typical get-out-the-vote operation is not something Trump needs because of his robust social media presence. Trump, a prolific Twitter user, has almost 9.3 million Twitter followers compared to just over 7 million for Clinton.

“The traditional boots on the ground are basically an old way of doing things. Social media today, in one click of a button, OK, you can talk to 100,000 people,” Paladino said. “So, you know, the old idea of going door to door, knocking on a door, ‘Hi, I’m Carl,’ you know? Well, that’s not the modern,” Paladino said. “She can have all the people she wants but her tactics are clearly old school, her advisers are clearly old school and I don’t think she’s going anywhere with that stuff.”

Trump held a fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday night that Paladino attended. Paladino, asked how the donors there responded to Trump, said the candidate would not be making extensive efforts to woo traditional well-heeled elites. Paladino also suggested that Trump, a billionaire who has given $50 million to his campaign, is not “concerned” about bringing in other wealthy donors.

“Part of this concentration and focus on money has to do with the press pointing out that maybe some of these large donors aren’t donating anymore or are not interested in getting on the bus and that’s a fallacy,” Paladino said.

“Donald Trump’s not going to go out and beg, borrow, and steal from people because one of the basic tenets of his campaign is, ‘I’m not going to owe anybody. OK?” he continued. “When I get in this office — and I will — I’m not owing anybody except the American people and the middle class that the Republican establishment forgot about all these years.’ OK? So, I really don’t think that’s a big deal. He’s not concerned obviously.”