WASHINGTON — The billionaire running for president now seeks to convince millions of Americans to give him money.
With the simple tap of the ‘‘send’’ button one day last week, Donald Trump collected $3 million in campaign contributions — as much as he did in the entire month of May. He asked for donations of $10 or more, and promised to add $2 million of his own money.
That one-day haul from Trump’s first fund-raising appeal is early evidence of the digital magic it takes to fill campaign coffers Bernie Sanders-style, from millions of people, each giving a few bucks.
Yet that was just one e-mail. Success demands repetition.
The presumptive Republican nominee must make the case that he needs money, after months of boasting that he can pay his own way. And his campaign also is failing in ‘‘the art of the e-mail.’’ One analysis found that 74 percent of his first fund-raising requests landed in spam folders.
Still, if Trump can reap millions of dollars from each pitch, it could help him solve an urgent problem: He’s being crushed by Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s well-honed finance machine, which pulled in 10 times as much as he did last month. Campaign money pays for the advertising and employees needed to find, persuade, and turn out voters on Election Day.
Trump’s national finance chairman Steven Mnuchin said the campaign was ‘‘overwhelmed’’ by reaction to the first online fund-raising appeal.
‘‘This is now going to become a daily effort,’’ Mnuchin said.
Since that initial e-mail, the Trump campaign has sent at least five additional solicitations. In an e-mail Monday, son Eric Trump wrote that ‘‘donors like you helped us to raise $11 million in just a few days.’’
‘‘That’s why we set another Trump-sized goal’’ of raising $10 million by Thursday, the last day of the month, Eric Trump wrote.
Trump’s partnership with the Republican National Committee also pays special attention to the small donors who typically give online. They have a joint account called the Trump Make America Great Again Committee that has sent two dozen e-mails in the past month.
