Trump's fundraising benefits from impeachment, reports and polling show

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump prepares for an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, campaign finance reports and polling suggest House impeachment proceedings have helped, not hindered, his campaign fundraising and further galvanized his support among Republicans.

During the last three months of 2019, amid weeks of testimony from top State Department officials and White House aides about the president’s dealings with Ukraine, Trump's campaign experienced its strongest fundraising quarter of the year, collecting $46 million in campaign contributions.

The haul included $5 million raised on Dec. 18, the day the Democrat-controlled House voted to impeach Trump in a party-line vote.

Also, national polls show that while the majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance, impeachment has done little to erode support from those who approve of him.

As of last Monday, Trump had an average 44.8% national approval rating, according to the poll tracking website Real Clear Politics. The figure has stayed in the low 40s, even before the House launched the impeachment inquiry in September.

Trump boasted to reporters at the White House recently that “because of the impeachment hoax we’re taking in numbers that nobody ever expected. We’re blowing everybody away.”

Trump’s supporters attribute the steadiness of his support to his long-standing ability to use social media and campaign rallies to reshape the narrative of the controversies surrounding his personal and political life.

On Dec. 18, the day of the House impeachment vote, Trump headlined a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he asserted he was “not worried” about his reelection chances and continued to cast his impeachment as a partisan “witch hunt.”

Political analysts say Trump has been helped in part by the emergence of a more fractured and partisan media landscape than during Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment or in 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned in the face of all-but-certain impeachment.

Americans have access to a bevy of news outlets on cable TV, the internet and satellite radio, many catering to partisan audiences. Trump routinely steers supporters to consume their news from Trump-friendly outlets such as Fox News Channel, One America News Network and Breitbart News.

“We’re in a very different time from the Nixon era and the Clinton era,” said Michael D’Antonio, a Long Island-based author who has interviewed Trump and wrote the 2015 book “The Truth About Trump.”

”We have an even more splintered media landscape, a more varied media landscape," D'Antonio said. "If the country doesn’t feel cohesive, if people don’t have a shared sense of what America is, then concern for crisis is going to be diffused. So one person’s impeachment is another person’s persecution.”

John Jay LaValle, a former Suffolk GOP chairman who serves on the Trump campaign’s national finance committee, credited Trump’s latest fundraising success in part to Trump’s ability to “talk to people directly” via social media over the daily stream of impeachment news coverage.

Data provided by Facebook shows the Trump campaign has aggressively used social media to raise money off impeachment. He spent nearly $7.5 million on Facebook ads from Sept. 24, the day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the launch of an impeachment inquiry, to Dec. 19, the day after the House voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The campaign’s Facebook ads, emails and text messages often solicit donations by appealing to his supporters’ sense of loyalty — calling for “Patriotic Americans” to stand with Trump and “Donate to the Official Impeachment Defense Fund Now!”

Trump’s fourth-quarter performance comes as the field of 14 Democratic hopefuls competes for campaign contributions.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) collected $34.5 million in the final quarter of 2019; former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $24.7 million; and former Vice President Joe Biden raised $22.7 million, according to figures released by their campaigns.

LaValle said he spoke briefly with Trump at the president’s New Year’s Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate. He described Trump as upbeat throughout the night despite impeachment.

“He asked, ‘How am I doing out there, in New York, on Long Island?’” LaValle recalled. “I told him he’s doing great, the Republicans love him more than ever.”

There have been no Long Island-specific polls taken on the impeachment issue, but national polls show Republicans have largely stuck by Trump throughout the impeachment saga.

An analysis of Gallup polling conducted by The Associated Press shows an average 86% of Republicans have approved of Trump over the course of his time in office. The figure has never dipped below 79% in any of Gallup’s polls.

A Gallup Poll conducted between Dec. 2 and Dec. 15 at the height of House impeachment hearings found 89% of Republicans approved of Trump’s performance, compared with only 8% of Democrats who gave him a favorable rating.

A majority of independents continue to disapprove of the president’s job performance. But his 42% approval rating among independents is up from 34% at the start of the impeachment hearings.

“These are very volatile times. What’s surprising to me is that with all the volatility, the polls don’t change that much,” said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford).

King said he believes part of the reason Trump’s poll numbers have remained steady is the strength of the economy. For most of Trump’s supporters, his dealings with Ukraine matter less than issues impacting their wallets, King said.

“Unless you’re a real ideologue, what he said or didn’t say to the president of Ukraine is not going to persuade you to vote against him,” King said. “Those who are against him are against him more than ever, and those who are for him are for him more than ever.”

Democrats say Trump abused his office by withholding congressionally approved U.S. military aid to Ukraine as he pressed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into his Democratic rivals. Trump has said his dealings with Zelensky were “perfect.”

King, who was in Congress during the Clinton impeachment, said Trump through “the force of his personality, his campaign rallies, through Fox News … through Twitter” has “been able to convince his base" that Democrats are “ganging up on him.”

“If this had come first, it would be one thing,” King said of the questions about Trump’s Ukraine dealings. “But coming after two years of the Russia investigation, most of his supporters, his base, feel this is much ado about nothing. The whole impeachment vote plays into his narrative that he’s being targeted.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), one of the president’s staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill, said Trump voters are sticking by him through impeachment because the president speaks to them in a way that is “raw and real.”

“The way he communicates may frustrate some, but others relate to it, and like it,” Zeldin said.