For the past year, the question of how much the president might need such “hard dollar” checks has been a source of debate and, at times, contention among his aides. But there has been little effort to cultivate people who can gather checks in increments of $2,800 at a rapid clip, according to multiple campaign advisers.
Last spring, allies of the president urged Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser who is directing Mr. Trump’s campaign from the White House, to do more to cultivate bundlers.
But it became an issue in the rivalry between Mr. Kushner and Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
More recently, the two have reached a détente, according to people close to the campaign. Still, the fund-raising concerns remain, and Mr. Kushner has said he wished some of the top fund-raisers who were rewarded by the president with ambassadorships were still able to raise money, according to two people familiar with his statements.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has repeatedly highlighted its fund-raising numbers, referring to them as “staggering” in a recent news release. The president began the year with close to $200 million in cash on hand between his campaign, the Republican National Committee and other affiliated entities. The groups raised just over a collective $460 million in 2019.
This past week, thanks to joint fund-raising agreements between the campaign, the national committee and 22 state parties, the Trump political operation increased the maximum contribution it could accept to $580,600 per person, giving wealthy donors the ability to park more of their money with the Trump re-election effort.
But some of the money that goes to the committee is restricted to specific uses, while the hard-dollar money can be used for broader purposes, like staff, advertising and field operations.