Megan McArdle says Donald Trump will never run as a third-party candidate for president because he’s not rich enough. It costs upwards of a billion dollars to run for president these days, and Trump doesn’t have that kind of scratch. So what’s he going to do? Raise it from billionaires after spending the entire primary claiming that anyone who raises money from billionaires is corrupt and crooked?
Well, this is Donald Trump we’re talking about, so sure. He might very well do that. Or he might run a cheap campaign designed not to win, but to take revenge on whoever stole the nomination from him.
Still, point taken. The whole self-funding schtick won’t work in a general election. But here’s the curious thing: it won’t work if he runs as the Republican nominee, either. He’s going to have to raise money from rich people. So why haven’t any of the other candidates asked about this? Whenever he goes into his self-funding spiel, why doesn’t one of them ask if he’ll promise to self-fund in the general election? If nothing else, it would be interesting to watch Trump try to slither his way out of it.
