White House Touts Trump Fundraising

The White House was trumpeting President Donald Trump's fundraising and campaigning prowess Tuesday (Aug. 21) as the midterm election nears, prowess that often was rooted in attacking the press as a way to drum up those dollars.

That came in a background call with reporters only hours before President Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance reform violations in which he implicated the President, according to CNN.

Related: Trump Campaign Calls for Challenging 'Liberal Propaganda Machines'

White House officials said the President had helped the Republican National Committee raise $227 million in the most recent campaign cycle, a record they pointed out.

That included the President's name on RNC emails, the officials said, and appearances at rallies for various candidates.

Related: Trump Calls for Crowning of King of Fake News

At those rallies, the President would often advise the crowd to ignore what the mainstream media was saying, arguing they were enemies of both his Administration and the American people.

Numerous RNC fund-raising e-mails over the President's signature also included attacks on the media.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.