Trump Raises $100M in 3 Months Via Small Donors, Romney & McCain Raised Under $64M

Donald Trump has unleashed an unprecedented deluge of small-dollar donations for the GOP, one that Republican Party elders have dreamed about finding for much of the past decade as they've watched a succession of Democrats -- Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders and, to a lesser extent, Hillary Clinton -- develop formidable fundraising operations $5, $10 and $20 at a time.

Trump has been actively soliciting cash for only a few months, but when he reveals his campaign's financials later this week they will show he has crushed the total haul from small-dollar donors to the past two Republican nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney -- during the entirety of their campaigns.

All told, Trump is approaching, or may have already passed, $100 million from donors who have given $200 or less, according to an analysis of available Federal Election Commission filings, the campaign's public statements and people familiar with his fundraising operation. It is a threshold no other Republican has ever achieved in a single campaign. And Trump has done so less than three months after signing his first email solicitation for donors on June 21 -- a staggering speed to collect such a vast sum.

"I've never seen anything like this," said a senior Republican operative who has worked closely with the campaign's small-dollar fundraising operation. "He's the Republican Obama in terms of online fundraising."

Clinton counted 2.3 million donors as of the end of August, the result of decades of campaigning, a previous presidential bid and allies who painstakingly built her an email file of supporters even before she formally announced her second run. But Trump had zoomed to 2.1 million donors in the past three months alone, his campaign has said.

...It is impossible to piece together a complete picture of Trump's finances due to different reporting deadlines for Trump's various committees. But as of the end of July, he had amassed $50 million in small contributions into his campaign, FEC records show. He has since announced he raised $90 million in August "mostly" from small donors both directly for his campaign and in joint committees shared with the Republican National Committee -- suggesting at least $45 million raised last month came from small contributors. Additionally, there is some money from small contributors in those shared RNC accounts -- Trump said they contained $37 million at the end of July -- that he has helped raise.

Trump's success dwarfs those of his GOP predecessors. McCain and Romney, in 2008 and 2012, respectively, raised just less than $64 million in contributions of $200 or less, according to FEC records (McCain, notably, accepted public funds in the 2008 general election).

Trump still lags far behind the pace-setting Democrats. President Obama raised an enormous $483.6 million in contributions of $200 or less in 2012, FEC records show. Sanders raised almost $202 million in small donations just during the 2016 primary. And Clinton raised almost $156 million in such contributions through the end of July, according to the FEC.