President Biden is trailing significantly behind former President Trump in the number of small dollar donations their campaigns received in 2023, according to federal data.
Small dollar donations are a key indicator of overall enthusiasm for a candidate, and the Trump campaign received some 668,000 donations of less than $200 last year. Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign received 564,000, according to the New York Times.
Despite the discrepancy, Biden’s campaign finished last year with more cash on hand than Trump’s, indicating a strategy of targeting wealthy Democratic donors.
Trump’s small dollar lead is not just sourced from solid red states like Florida and Texas. He is also leading Biden in the metric in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, according to the Times.
The donation report comes as Trump also took a huge lead over Biden in a national NBC News poll released Sunday. The poll showed Biden struggling to compete with Trump on top issues like immigration and the economy, with Biden trailing Trump by 23 points when voters were asked who would be a better candidate to handle the economy.
Those numbers come despite Biden’s recent argument that his administration’s economic policies are starting to work, telling voters in Michigan last week that “inflation is coming down” and that they had “created 800,000 manufacturing jobs.”
Trump also boasted large leads over Biden when it came to securing the border (+35 points), having the necessary mental and physical health to be president (+23), and dealing with crime and violence (+21). The former president also has double-digit leads over Biden when it comes to being competitive and effective (+16) and on improving America’s standing in the world (+11).
Overall, the NBC poll showed Trump leading Biden by five percentage points, 47% to 42%, among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 general election rematch.