Trump raised $18 million in 24 hours after the debate. Or did he?

Donald Trump lost the debate, but did he win the post-debate fundraising race? Trump claims to have raised $18 million in the 24 hours following the debate, which would be a big deal. But, as with so many Trump claims, there’s reason to question it.

A Trump campaign source said that only $5 million of the $18 million haul came in online donations made directly to the campaign, which tend to be the types of donations most driven by organic grass-roots energy. [...]

The remaining $13 million came through phone call solicitations made as part of a campaign “call day” in which about 100 major donors and campaign insiders — including Trump’s children and his vice presidential running mate Mike Pence — made telephone solicitations from the campaign’s headquarters in Manhattan’s Trump Tower.

But there’s a but. Two of them, actually. Some of those big-donor dollars—we don’t know how many of them—could be pledges that might or might not ever materialize in reality. Also:

The campaign source said that the call day donations were about equally split between the campaign and a joint fundraising committee called Trump Victory that includes the Trump campaign, the RNC, and about a dozen state party committees.

Trump Victory can accept checks as large as $449,500, making it easier to bring in huge sums of cash quickly. But, no matter how large the check to Trump Victory, only $2,700 can go to the Trump campaign, with the rest going to the RNC and the state parties.

Money is money and if Trump is raising for the RNC and the state parties, that’s not nothing. But $18 million sounds a lot different when, at least in theory, 20 donors could have accounted for nearly half of it, much of it may not be going to the Trump campaign, and some unknown amount is in pledges that might never turn into actual contributions. It’s the most Trump possible way to “raise” $18 million, in other words. At least since Vladimir Putin is, as a non-citizen, barred from making campaign contributions.

We’ll find out something about what Trump really raised in the day after the debate in a couple weeks, when fundraising disclosures are filed.

Forget all this talk of $18 million. How about $1 for Hillary Clinton?

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