Donald Trump’s campaign is reportedly facing some financial troubles as campaign manager Bill Stepien has taken a big pay cut.
The HuffPost reported on Friday that Stepien took a 33 percent pay cut when he made the jump to head of the president’s re-election campaign. The report noted that he is taking $5,000 less on a monthly basis than Brad Parscale had earned in the same position. Parscale was demoted following what was seen as a disappointing return to the campaign trail for Trump, with a lower-than-expected turnout for the rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The report noted that if the $10,000 that Stepien’s firm receives each month constitutes his total new compensation, it would mean that Trump is paying his own campaign manager less than other “senior advisers,” including the wife of his adult son and the girlfriend of another son.
The apparent pay decrease comes as Trump faced a significant fundraising deficit in August. As CNN reported, Joe Biden brought in a record total of $364.5 million for the period, while Trump’s outfit raised $210 million.
Some believed that the compensation decrease for Stepien is a sign of more cost-cutting to come.
“Plainly, they have big money problems and I am guessing Stepien cut his own salary as a prelude to cutting others,” David Axelrod, the top Democratic strategist for Barack Obama in 2008, told The HuffPost .
Axelrod added that the president’s campaign has made a big bet that they could invest early in “building a small-dollar digital universe” that would compete with Biden, but now it appears the Democratic candidate is widening his lead in fundraising and cash on hand. The Inquisitr reported that he has also had difficulties with some traditional top donors.
There have been other signs that Trump’s campaign is pulling back on spending. As The Washington Post reported, there has been some concern in Republican circles after his campaign pulled back from television advertising over the course of the last month. The outlet noted that doing so was seen as a capitulation to Biden on a number of key states.
“Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations,” the Washington Post noted. “Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.”
