Let’s leave aside for a moment that whole, I don’t need to raise any money thing, shall we? The bad news is that Hillary Clinton has already raised enough cash to flip Guam right side up using bails of $100 bills if it ever tips over. The good news is that Donald Trump seems to have been able to unlock the reserves of small dollar donors out there who are still willing to donate to not only his election efforts, but the GOP as a whole. (Politico)

Donald Trump has unleashed an unprecedented deluge of small-dollar donations for the GOP, and one that Republican Party elders have dreamed about finding for much of the last 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 only been actively soliciting cash for 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 of the last two Republican nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney — during the entirety of their campaigns.

All told, Trump is approaching, and has possibly already passed, $100 million from donors who have given less than $200, 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 previous 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 have no intention of suddenly going all fan boy on you here, but that’s impressive no matter what the name at the top of the ticket happens to be. $100M from small donors in three months isn’t just good… it’s staggering in the current political climate. Of course, the real question here has to be who will be overseeing the spending of those funds and how productively they can be deployed in the short calendar we have left before election day.

Since I got the sunny and cheerful news out of the way up front, allow me to finish up by putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment. The threshold for reporting donations in accordance with FEC rules is $200. Any of you who have ever worked on local or even congressional races are probably familiar with opening up envelopes from a lot of people who donate $190 or even $199 dollars. We all know the reason. For one excuse or another they don’t want their name showing up in a searchable database having donated to this or that candidate or party. With that in mind, consider how often we hear the speculation about the “hidden Trump support” out there which dares not speak his name.

Are these the silent Trump supporters who feel the same way about keeping their support under wraps so they’re just giving what they can without it being reported? Just something to ponder on a Monday afternoon.