• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, October 28, 2016

Trump’s fundraising prowess has fallen off a cliff in October. As of October 19, according to reports filed with the FEC on Thursday evening, the Trump campaign had just under $16 million cash on hand.

That is compared to Hillary Clinton’s $62 million. When including the joint fundraising committees with the RNC and DNC, Trump’s numbers grow to $68 million, while Clinton and her party committees had a whopping $153 million to spend up and down-ballot in the final few weeks of the campaign.

Donald Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash that he was ready to spend upwards of $100 million in personal funds to bolster his campaign in the final weeks. Thus far, he has infused a little more that half of that to his campaign — and doesn’t look to be gearing up for much more.

Nor is he prepared to spend on down-ballot Republican candidates, something that the party has been hoping for.

As far as donations to the campaigns, Clinton brought in about double the receipts Trump garnered over this first period of October. Trump supporters gave the campaign $29 million, whereas Clinton donors were able to put together almost $53 million, with about half coming from outside committees.

The Clinton camp has the cash to look down ballot at close races and strategically help Democrats keep a financial edge over their opponents. The healthy coffers will also serve as a backstop for the final get-out-the-vote campaigns.

Trump can tweet and stump all he wants, but millions of Republicans who don’t see his tweets or listen to his speeches will have to mobilize if he wants to win on November 8. One strains to see how the GOP can outdo the Democrats at the polls in these final days.

While Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted this morning that Trump “isn’t finished putting his own money into the campaign,” he doesn’t have much time left.

Just this morning, Donald Trump announced he would infuse another $10 million of his own money to buy ads in battleground states. The money is expected to be used as part of a last-ditch $25 million TV ad buy.