Fact Checkers Bust GOP Lie: Trump Donated A Lot More to Republicans Than Democrats

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:07 pm

donald trump republican party

Republicans are trying to give Donald Trump to the Democrats, claiming he made “more donations to Democrats than to Republicans”.

A desperate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) just pulled this in an interview published this morning in the New Yorker:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

Many Republicans assume that Trump’s current position at the top of national polls won’t last, and McCain, who said that he last met Trump many years ago, pointed out that conservatives are starting to learn more about Trump’s liberal past. “He was a big Democratic supporter,” he said. “Some of this stuff is going to come out: he gave more money to Democrats than Republicans, he had Hillary Clinton at his wedding. You know, he’s attacking Hillary Clinton after she was in the front row of his—I don’t know which wedding it was.” (Trump has been married four times.)

It’s ironic to hear John McCain complain about the crazies in his party, when he ushered them in with his pick of Sarah Palin and then lacked the courage to ever publicly denounce her horrific rhetoric aimed at the President. But his attempt to dirty Trump by placing Hillary Clinton at his wedding is almost pathetic. Everyone who is anyone wants the Clinton at their events.

John McCain is famous for hosting the so-called “liberal press” at his ranch for cozy weekend get togethers — does this mean he’s a liberal? No, it means that John McCain knows how to get good press. McCain and the Republicans are doing what they do when they can’t win an argument on facts; smear by association — just another way of saying fallacious argument.

This Republican narrative has already become the accepted norm (thanks media!). Over and over again you hear “Donald donated more to Dems, he’s a Democrat, he donated a lot to Hillary Clinton!”

Naturally, Republicans want to give their ticking time bomb to the Democrats. But they are dead wrong about the money. PolitiFact fact-checked the Republican claim that Trump gave more money to Democrats and found it Mostly False. In fact, in recent years Trump has been a full on hardcore Republican donor. They say “the last time he gave to a Democrat running for federal office was in 2010.”

From PolitiFact:

Trump has actually been relatively evenhanded in doling out cash to the two parties, but since 1989, he’s contributed over $350,000 more to Republicans running for federal and state offices, campaign finance records show.

Data from the Federal Election Commission and state elections offices provided by the two websites show that Trump has given $584,850 to Democrats and $961,140 to the GOP over the last 26 years.

The difference in donations is almost entirely captured in Trump’s recent giving. Since 2012, Trump has donated $463,450 to Republicans and just $3,500 to Democrats (California Attorney General Kamala Harris and New York Assemblyman Michael Benedetto).

If all we needed to do was follow the money, Republican claims that Trump gave more to Democrats are wrong. In recent years he has given way more to Republicans and since 1989 he has given almost twice as much to Republicans.

But of course, it’s more complicated than that because Trump owns a lot of businesses and anyone in business will try to spread their donations around to grease the wheels. This doesn’t reflect a party preference as much as it does a desire to have an open door. That could be why Trump gave to Democrats at all. PolitiFact notes that speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity in 2011, Trump defended his giving to Democrats in blue state New York because there is no one else.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a “Democrat”. Democrats aren’t on Fox News justifying their financial choices to Sean Hannity in order to appease the Republican base.

The specific claim PolitiFact fact-checked was Ben Ferguson on CNN July 2nd saying that Donald Trump has “given more money to Democratic candidates than Republican candidates.” Mostly false. So sorry, Republicans but he’s all yours.

Not only is Trump self-identifying as a Republican and running as a Republican, but there is also the matter of policy. On policy, Trump is pure modern day Republican. Hates immigrants and poor people? He’s a Republican. Promises to “beat his a$$” when a threat emerges and then hides under his desk calling the FBI for help when he gets a mild Twitter pushback allegedly from said threat? He’s a Republican. He is selling knuckledragging thug/BMOC who spits on the lessers to the Republican base, and they love it. The Republican base loves nasty and mean.

There’s just no escaping the policy problems Republicans have (being on the wrong side of pretty much every cultural issue, for example, and that doesn’t even touch their welfare for corporations on the backs of working people), nor the fact that they can’t keep denying they own these policies when people have easy access via the Internet to actual voting records.

Trump is a Republican.

PolitiFact gave this claim of Republicans a “Mostly False” because the local level data isn’t available. But, in recent years, Trump has given $350,000 more to Republicans at the state and federal level.

Trump is a Republican.



Copyright PoliticusUSA LLC 2008-2023