Small-dollar donors — those who give a total of less than $200 per year — have provided 59 percent of the $26 million that Trump’s re-election campaign has raised so far in 2017. A good share of that total came via supporters’ purchases of Trump-themed merchandise. By comparison, former President Barack Obama raised 36 percent of the funds for his 2012 re-election effort in amounts of $200 or less.
Small donors have also fueled the Republican National Committee’s record haul, representing 60 percent of the $54.3 million given directly to the party to influence federal elections so far this year. That’s an increase from the first six months of 2015, when the GOP raised 48 percent of its $45.1 million kitty from small donors. (The Democratic National Committee raised 48 percent of its $33 million total from them over the same period.)