Donald Trump

Washington, (IANS) : US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Friday at a rally in Fletcher, North Carolina, that he will spend $100 million of his own money on this election, though he will continue to trail his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in campaign spending.

Trump spoke on Friday to his followers in the key state of North Carolina and asked them to go out and vote now to take advantage of the early voting possibility, EFE news reported.

“We have to work,” he told the crowd, “You have to get everybody you know out there.”

The Republican candidate, who is behind his rival in the polls, said “we have a bunch of babies running our country, a bunch of losers”, and again spoke of his business experience as one of his strong points.

In that regard, he said he would close his campaign spending at $100 million of his own money, something that shows, he said, that he is not being influenced by lobbyists as is so often the case in Washington.

Trump promised that if he makes it to the White House he will “drain the swamp” in Washington with a reform that will include banning public officials from working as lobbyists for five years after leaving office, and a constitutional amendment limiting the number of terms a lawmaker may serve in Congress.

The Trump campaign spent in September some $70 million (not out of his own pocket), collected $54.7 million (including $2 million of his own money) and at the end of that month had $34.8 million in the bank, according to figures of the Federal Election Commission.

For its part, the Clinton campaign had at the end of the month close to $60 million in the bank, having spent more than $82 million after collecting close to $74 million.

The campaign’s home stretch is when most of the funds are spent on getting people out to vote and trying to convince the undecided to make up their minds, especially in the swing states, EFE news reported.

Trump has the added difficulty that the Republican Party has decided to focus its campaign funds on saving its seats in the Senate and not on the race for the White House, given the available voter preference data.