Trump’s absurd charge that Clinton raised $60 million in July from just 20 people

You know, numbers just came out for her [Hillary Clinton] where she raised like $50 or $60 million and 20 people gave it. I think it was — let’s see, 20 people gave her $60 million in her fund. $60 million from 20 people. I want to get a list of those 20 people. Oh, those 20 people, I want to find out who they are, I want to find out how many I know. But I’ll tell you what, 20 people gave her $60 million. And that’s what I’ve been saying, folks. Look, I know the game better than anybody and the game is played that way. They own her. They own her.”
 
— Donald Trump, remarks at a rally in Ashburn, Va., Aug. 2, 2016
We have puzzled and puzzled over these remarks until our puzzler was sore.
As usual, the Trump campaign did not respond
to requests to explain them. But as best we can tell, Trump is claiming that the announcement that the Hillary Clinton campaign raised more than $60 million in July was the result of donations from just 20 people.
In fact, Trump mentions “20 people” six times, clearly trying to drive home the message that Clinton is in the pocket of her big contributors. ‘They own her,” he said. “They own her.”
But there’s a very big problem with Trump’s claim.

The Facts

Clinton announced on Aug. 2 that her campaign had raised $63 million in July. Two joint fundraising committees that Clinton has with the Democratic National Committee brought in $26 million more for the national and state parties in July, giving her a monthly total of about $90 million.
The full details of the contributions are not due at the Federal Election Commission until Aug. 20. Presumably, Trump, in citing $60 million, was referring to the $63 million raised for Clinton’s campaign.
But here’s the rub: Under the law, contributions to Clinton’s campaign are limited to $2,700 per person in the primary season and $2,700 for the general election. Primary contributions generally can be collected until the official nomination, at the end of July this year, so in theory a person could have contributed as much as $5,400 in July. But that’s the maximum possible that can be given directly to the campaign. (The limits are much higher, about $100,000, to national party committees.)
The Clinton campaign said that the average donation was $44 and that about 54 percent of the donations came from new donors.

Credit: Washington Post