Is Trump really in it to win it?

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall wrote a post entitled "Trump's Not Doing Poorly; He's Not Even Running." Marshall points to a major benchmark that the Trump campaign is not meeting: a modern presidential campaign requires $1 billion in funds. Trump claims he doesn't need close to that much because his command of earned media and business acumen is second to none.

Supporters say that Trump's fundraising deficits are irrelevant because his wealth will allow him to self-fund a campaign. He's made it this far with a small staff and central command, which has enabled him to move quickly, especially on social media (see: the decimation of Jeb Bush, who lost catastrophically to Trump despite tens of millions of dollars).

But he's shown little interest in spending his cash for the general campaign, and few GOP donors are opening their wallets to give money to someone who has touted his billionaire status for decades. At this point in 2012, Mitt Romney was pulling in $1 million a day to fund his campaign, and Trump is nowhere near close to that. Republican fundraiser Fred Malek thinks Trump is behind to the tune of "$300 million to $500 million.” Politico had an even more damning story:

The RNC gave [Trump] the names of twenty big GOP donors to call. He got bored or frustrated and stopped after calling three. And this comes after deciding that he actually doesn't need to raise a billion dollars.

Marshall thinks there is a definite possibility that Trump will drop out of the race before November 2 rather than deal with this fundraising nightmare. But Trump's supporters point out that he has defied conventional wisdom over and over, and that small donors combined with the candidate's ability to dominate the news cycle will give him the edge over Clinton. Maybe he doesn't need $1 billion... but if he does, he's in big trouble.

What do you think?

Is Donald Trump even trying to win this election? | The Tylt