WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s problems are becoming financial.
Amid turmoil over a video revealing the Republican nominee’s boasts about groping women, some Texas donors are pulling out of two scheduled fundraisers in the state on Tuesday, according to Texas Republicans with knowledge of the events.
Trump is scheduled to headline fundraisers in Dallas and San Antonio next week, and the aim was to raise in the ballpark of $5 million for his presidential effort. It is an open question whether those fundraisers will happen, according to the Republican sources. Sunday’s presidential debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will likely be determinative on that front.
The video, first reported by The Washington Post, showed Trump in 2005 using explicit language and set off a conflagration within the GOP over the weekend. High-profile members of Congress — including Texans — and statewide officials condemned their party’s nominee, and some withdrew their support for his candidacy.
That anger has extended to the moneyed circles of Texas GOP politics.
One high-profile Texan, bundler Gene Powell of San Antonio, pulled out of hosting the San Antonio fundraiser, as previously reported by The Dallas Morning News. The Texas Tribune has confirmed this report.
Elsewhere in the state, a Houston donor went public with his ire on Friday. Houston attorney Tony Buzbee — who hosted Trump in June for a fundraiser — wrote on Facebook: “Sorry Donald. I’m done with you. Completely.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2016/10/08/trump-begins-bleed-texas-donors/.