• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Finance

Trump Had a Huge July, Says His Top Wall Street Fundraiser

By
Stephen Gandel
Stephen Gandel
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Stephen Gandel
Stephen Gandel
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 2, 2016, 5:59 AM ET
Photograph by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

Updated: 9:45 a.m.

Donald Trump may be catching up in the presidential money race.

Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund manager and top Wall Street fundraiser for Trump, estimates the candidate and the groups that support him may have raised as much as $70 million in July. That’s nearly 30% more than the $55 million the candidate said he and groups that support him raised in June.

Scaramucci does not have an official role with the Trump campaign, but he is a top Republican bundler, and an adviser to Trump’s national finance committee. Scaramucci says he doesn’t have the campaign’s official numbers, but that he is regularly briefed on fundraising totals. His guess comes from those briefings, which have suggested that Trump did very well with donors in July.

The official FEC filings showed that Trump’s campaign raised $22 million that month, though some of that difference may have to do with how donations are counted.

A $70 million haul would make July Trump’s best fundraising month so far, though the candidate is still trailing his rival for contributions. Hillary Clinton also announced Tuesday morning that she had raised $90 million from donors in July.

Over the weekend, Trump said that his campaign had its best fundraising month ever in July. And at a rally on Monday, Trump said that his campaign had raised nearly $36 million in July from small donors alone. He didn’t give a total fundraising number for the month.

See more: Why Trumponomics Makes Sense to Americans

Scaramucci also says Trump is way more popular on Wall Street and has the backing of far more people in the hedge fund industry than a widely cited report from The Wall Street Journal last week—that said Clinton was far out fundraising Trump with money crowd—suggested.

The WSJ last Friday reported that Clinton had raised $48.5 million from hedge funds to her campaign or to groups working on her behalf. The same report said that Trump, on the other hand, had collected just $19,000 from the hedge fund industry.

But the WSJ’s numbers don’t add up. Scaramucci says he and his firm—which manages portfolios of hedge funds as well as runs a top industry conference—alone have donated $250,000 to the Trump campaign effort, including $267 that Scaramucci says he has spent on Trump’s Make America Great Again hats.

See also: How Trump’s Divisive Campaign Is Hurting His Hotel Business

Scaramucci says that other notable hedge funders who have donated significant sums to Trump’s campaign efforts include Carl Icahn, Tom Barrack, and Stephen Feinberg. In fact, Trump’s chief fundraiser and head of his national finance committee, billionaire Steven Mnuchin, is himself a hedge fund manager.

Scaramucci says hedge fund managers have donated as much as $25 million to the Trump campaign and political groups supporting the candidate, with around 20% of the money Trump brought in July coming from hedge funds.

Scaramucci also discussed a fundraising event he plans to help put on for Trump in the Hamptons on August 13, which is likely to attract a lot of potential donors from the hedge fund industry and Wall Street in general. The event is scheduled to be held at the house of New York Jets football team owner Woody Johnson.

See also: Donald Trump’s Long, Fruitless Quest for Business in Russia

In its report, the WSJ cited the Center for Responsive Politics as the source for the $48.5 million vs. $19,000 Clinton-Trump hedge fund donation gap.

But Douglas Weber, a senior researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics, says he doesn’t know how the newspaper came up with those totals.

In its article, the WSJ said it counted Clinton’s donations from seven “financial firms” to compute the $48.5 million figure. One of the firms the newspaper included in its hedge fund figures was the Pritzker Group, a private equity firm controlled by members of the Pritzker family. Another family member, Penny Pritzker, was appointed Secretary of Commerce in 2013 by President Obama.

 

Hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, who once supported Ted Cruz, is now reportedly backing Trump. He and his daughter have reportedly given close to $500,000 to the Trump effort so far.

The Center for Responsive Politics does have a page on its website that cites donations from hedge funds and private equity funds. The page says that Trump has raised just $18,866 from that industry. The same page puts Clinton’s total from the group at $27.6 million, or about half of what the WSJ says.

The Center for Responsive Politics says its numbers are correct through July 21.

Despite his own backers calling the numbers bogus, Trump has tried to capitalize on the reportedly lopsided donation numbers for hedge funds. He said he didn’t know where the $19,000 from the wealthy investors came from, and that he “didn’t even want” money from hedge funders. “I think I’ll send it back,” Trump told his crowd of supporters.

If that’s truly the case, Trump will have to send a lot more money back than just $19,000.

Update: Shortly after this story was published the Clinton campaign announced that it had raised $90 million in July. The story was updated to reflect that fact.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Penny Pritzker was appointed Secretary of State. In fact, she is Secretary of Commerce.

About the Author
By Stephen Gandel
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

 Trump says he is reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war but ‘can’t imagine that it would be acceptable’
PoliticsIran
 Trump says he is reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war but ‘can’t imagine that it would be acceptable’
By Aamer Madhani, Sarah El Deeb, Cara Anna and The Associated PressMay 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Can the ‘blue economy’ deliver on its promise? Investors are starting see the ocean as an asset worth protecting
CommentaryConservation
Can the ‘blue economy’ deliver on its promise? Investors are starting see the ocean as an asset worth protecting
By Natalie Sum Yue ChungMay 2, 2026
3 hours ago
Iran juggles oil cuts and storage strain to resist U.S. blockade
EnergyIran
Iran juggles oil cuts and storage strain to resist U.S. blockade
By Anthony Di Paola, Ben Bartenstein, Patrick Sykes, Weilun Soon, Charles Gorrivan and BloombergMay 2, 2026
5 hours ago
Disney’s new CEO is exploring a ‘super app’ for theme park tickets, movies and more
Big TechMedia
Disney’s new CEO is exploring a ‘super app’ for theme park tickets, movies and more
By Thomas Buckley, Lucas Shaw and BloombergMay 2, 2026
5 hours ago
Unionized workers form alliance with rich tech giants on AI data centers, pushing back on local opposition and redrawing political lines
AIData centers
Unionized workers form alliance with rich tech giants on AI data centers, pushing back on local opposition and redrawing political lines
By Marc Levy and The Associated PressMay 2, 2026
5 hours ago
San Diego Padres to sell team to investor group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano, who will become the second Latino owner in baseball
Bankingbaseball
San Diego Padres to sell team to investor group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano, who will become the second Latino owner in baseball
By Greg Beacham and The Associated PressMay 2, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Scott Bessent on financial literacy: 'it drives me crazy' to see young men in blue-collar construction jobs playing the lottery
Personal Finance
Scott Bessent on financial literacy: 'it drives me crazy' to see young men in blue-collar construction jobs playing the lottery
By Fatima Hussein and The Associated PressMay 1, 2026
2 days ago
Gen Z is rebelling against the economy with ‘disillusionomics,’ tackling near 6-figure debt by turning life into a giant list of income streams
Economy
Gen Z is rebelling against the economy with ‘disillusionomics,’ tackling near 6-figure debt by turning life into a giant list of income streams
By Jacqueline MunisMay 2, 2026
12 hours ago
A Chick-fil-A worker got fired and then showed up behind the register to allegedly refund himself over $80,000 in mac and cheese
Law
A Chick-fil-A worker got fired and then showed up behind the register to allegedly refund himself over $80,000 in mac and cheese
By Catherina GioinoMay 1, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of May 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 1, 2026
2 days ago
Stop donating to Harvard and the Ivy League. There's a better option that MacKenzie Scott already figured out
Commentary
Stop donating to Harvard and the Ivy League. There's a better option that MacKenzie Scott already figured out
By Ed Smith-LewisMay 2, 2026
18 hours ago
The American household just took an 81% margin cut. Wall Street hasn’t priced it in
Commentary
The American household just took an 81% margin cut. Wall Street hasn’t priced it in
By Katica RoyMay 2, 2026
15 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.