Campaigning seems to be its own business. It is ridiculous how far out candidates campaign these days.

Just did some checking and in 2020 Trump ended with an $11 million debt.

Campaigning seems to be its own business. It is ridiculous how far out candidates campaign these days.

Just did some checking and in 2020 Trump ended with an $11 million debt.

Yes, but his warchest also had over $18M cash on hand, enough to pay that off completely and still have funds.
https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/donald-trump/candidate?id=N00023864

Open Secrets doesn't have the updated/final figures for 2024 yet.  It might take a couple of months until all the required FEC fillings are officially released publicly.

Campaigning seems to be its own business. It is ridiculous how far out candidates campaign these days.

Just did some checking and in 2020 Trump ended with an $11 million debt.

BTW, I'm not sure if the 2020 numbers apply, but candidates very often LEND their own campaign large sums of money.  Why would they do that?  Because they know it'll get paid back, and they can charge a healthy amount of interest for the loan.  So, the campaign gets an infusion of cash, and the candidate makes a guaranteed repayment including interest.  Loans also don't trigger the donation limits just writing a check would.

If Trump did that in 2020, it explains why there is a debt and cash on hand as opposed to spending everything and borrowing nothing.