Trump Requests $25M to Have Lunch With a Donor

To be clear, Donald Trump isn't doing anything illegal in his fundraising efforts. But the Washington Post paints a picture of a candidate who is "testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws" as he aims to shorten the Democrats' massive fundraising lead. In an article resulting from interviews with 11 donors and advisers to Trump, the Post highlights several donation requests made by the former president that contain plenty of zeroes. One example: Trump reportedly told deep-pocketed donors in New York that he refused to have lunch with a businessman who'd offered to donate $1 million to his campaign. "You've got to make it $25 million," Trump said, before promising tax cuts if he's elected.

These are requests "for sums more than his campaign and the GOP can legally accept from an individual," the Post reports (though super PACs don't have such a limit) and often come "within seconds of promises of tax cuts, oil project infrastructure approvals and other favorable policies." But there would have to be an "explicit quid pro quo" for such a request and donation to be illegal, one campaign finance lawyer notes. The Post contrasts Trump's current approach with how he handled fundraising in 2016, when those close to him say he avoided fundraising calls, wasn't keen on taking photos with donors, and vowed to fix a system in which donors and lobbyists "have total control" over politicians. (More Donald Trump stories.)