Former president Donald Trump will headline the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat on May 3-5 in Palm Beach, Fla., according to an email sent to the committee’s 168 members this week and obtained by National Review.
Party leaders are also encouraging RNC members to dip into their own pockets and join the Eagles 168 Club, the party’s oldest major donor club that requires members to give or raise a minimum of $15,000 per year for the RNC or Trump 47 Committee, one of the party’s new joint fundraising committees with the Trump campaign.
NEWS: RNC’s “annual major donor Spring Retreat will be held on May 3-5 in Palm Beach, FL with President Donald J. Trump as the speaker,” per member email obtained by NR.
RNC also asking its own 168 committee members to donate to the national party via the Eagles 168 Club pic.twitter.com/a0ggShwQ4U
— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) April 5, 2024
This week’s fundraising plea comes on the heels of a successful fundraising month for the Trump campaign, the RNC, and their joint fundraising entities, which raised $65.6 million in March and entered April with $93.1 million on hand — more than doubling the $21 million both entities jointly raised in February.
The party’s massive spring cash haul comes after the RNC officially joined forces with their presumptive nominee and elected new national party leaders in early March. That effective merger has allowed both entities to accept bigger contributions from donors. Both of the RNC’s new co-chairs — former North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley and the former president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump — have pledged to remedy the party’s fundraising amid an already competitive presidential-election cycle when the GOP’s presumptive nominee continues to spend heavily on legal fees.
Trump allies are holding a separate fundraiser this weekend in Palm Beach, where they are expected to massively out-raise the more than $25 million the Biden campaign raked in last month at a Manhattan fundraiser that featured former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and an array of musical and entertainment guests.
The RNC’s recent fundraising success has allowed the party to close the cash gap between Trump and Biden after a lag in GOP fundraising late last year under former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s tenure. The Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden’s campaign reported $155 million on hand at the end of February but has not yet reported their joint March numbers.