Thread: Donald Trump looks to cash in with California fundraisers

Note to Trump: This is a slap in the face to California Republican's. You have no time to campaign in California, but you have time to come here for a fundraiser. You have had time to travel through other states and to find out the concerns of their citizens and bring their concerns to the forefront, but you have chosen to ignore the concerns of Californian's. Are you not showing us the same respect and consideration that you have shown to the citizens of other states because you do not consider that you need our vote?



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Donald Trump looks to cash in with California fundraisers

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

By David Montero, LA Daily News
POSTED: 05/12/16, 8:43 PM PDT | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves as he arrives for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., at the Republican National Committee Headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 12, 2016.

Trump and Ryan are sitting down face-to-face for the first time, a week after Ryan stunned Republicans by refusing to back the mercurial billionaire for president. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)


California is about to take on the role of general election ATM for Donald Trump.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president will be in Los Angeles on May 25 for a fundraiser hosted by Thomas Barrack, founder and executive chairman of the global real estate and investment firm Colony Capital. The event comes at a time when Trump is trying to unify a fractured GOP polarized by a bruising, bitter primary fight.

Now that Trump has sidelined Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, he needs donors to open up their wallets for him to win the White House.

•RELATED STORY: GOP in danger of becoming No. 3 choice in California

Los Angeles-based Republican strategist John Thomas said he expects there to be an additional event added to the Barrack fundraiser, likely a joint gathering with the Republican National Committee that would allow donors to write bigger checks than the $2,700 limit set by campaign finance laws.

“A typical swing through California shouldn’t get less than $1 million,” Thomas said. “That would be a good start.”

In 2012, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama together spent more than $1.1 billion during the general election.

Barrack endorsed Trump on Feb. 29 and said in a statement released by the campaign that he’d invested with the real estate mogul over three decades and that he “has always exceeded my expectations on every measurable metric of excellence.”

Through a spokeswoman, Barrack declined to comment on any specifics of the fundraiser, but, even with few details, some Republicans were interested in attending.

•RELATED STORY: Early voting turnout in LA County shatters previous first-day numbers

Count Mell Flynn, president of the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, as a hopeful attendee.

“I’m looking into it,” she said. “I’m feeling a lot better about him, and I think he is starting to surround himself with good and credible people.”

Because California is a reliably blue state — even Los Angeles Republican Party Chairman Mark Vafiades agreed Trump wouldn’t put it in play — its role is to raise and spread money throughout the country in key swing states such as Ohio and Florida.

Vafiades said that while some donors may not want to contribute to Trump because he is an outsider, he may be able to tap wealthy donors in places previously weighted against Republicans.

“He knows and has a lot of relationships in the entertainment industry,” Vafiades said. “That is an area traditionally dominated by liberals. There is also real estate, where he has developed many relationships over the years. I don’t see him having trouble raising money here.”

•RELATED STORY: For some in GOP, Trump-Clinton matchup is ‘nightmare’ choice

Trump, who largely financed his primary run with his own money, needs California cash from big donors for the general election, Thomas said.

But, he said, it will also be a tricky balance because many Trump supporters lauded his claims of being self-funded and not beholden to large donors.

“Trump’s disadvantage is that he doesn’t have the small-donor machine in place from the primary and that will take time to get going,” Thomas said. “I think it will be easier to convince bundlers to raise money for him. But small donors might say, ‘Why would I give $5 to the billionaire?’”

Outside groups also hope to help Trump in California when he arrives on May 25.

Ann-Marie Villicana, co-chair of LA Trump and a former Pasadena city councilwoman, flew to New York City earlier this month to meet with Trump’s strategists about his next steps in Los Angeles.

“I contacted the Trump campaign and said that we were establishing LATrump.com ( www.latrump.com ) and we were going to do everything we could to help Donald Trump get elected,” Villicana said.

She said LA Trump — a group of supporters that includes former Libertarian presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root — is planning “one to two events” with the presidential candidate during his scheduled visit on May 25.

Trump’s stop in California will be his first since late April, when he appeared at a rally in Costa Mesa and was still eyeing the state as a battle for the nomination and its 172 delegates. But after he won Indiana last week and Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out, the real estate mogul has begun to solidify his fundraising by naming Steven Mnuchin campaign finance chairman while unifying the party by meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday.

That meeting might not have gotten Dave Berg, a former producer of “The Tonight Show,” who used to book Trump over the course of 12 years, to donate to his campaign, but it soothed his nerves about possibly supporting him in the general election.

“I’m still up in the air about it,” Berg said. “I’d like to see him act presidential, such as the way he acted following his meeting with Paul Ryan.

He seemed gracious and showed me he’s capable.”

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