President Trump boards Air Force One on Tuesday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

President Trump boards Air Force One on Tuesday at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

President Trump says he will spend his own money to fund his reelection campaign if he needs to do so.

“If I have to, I would,” Trump responded to a reporter’s question Tuesday before departing for Florida. “If we needed any more, I’d put it up personally, like I did in the primaries last time.” He added that he would spend “whatever it takes. We have to win.”

Trump said his campaign has had to “spend more money upfront” to defend his administration’s work responding to the coronavirus. He said he did not anticipate having to spend his own money “because we have double and maybe even triple” what his first campaign had.

As recently as July, the campaign and Republican National Committee had boasted about their fundraising advantage over their Democratic opponents, playing up the massive war chest they had built since starting fundraising in 2017. The Trump campaign and RNC haven’t yet released their August fundraising numbers, but the Biden campaign and Democratic Party raised a record $364 million.

Separately, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien told reporters that campaign spending is not “the only factor in determining winners and losers in politics,” noting that the campaign had invested early in staff in key states.

Stepien also said the campaign has two to three times more cash to spend than in 2016 and has been adding advertising where needed. “We are focusing our efforts on the states and the places that are catching the votes earliest,” he said. “And now we’re adding states each and every week.”