Comparative scholarship suggests authoritarian candidates often rely on backing from the wealthy.
The wealthy are also said to play an important role in American campaign finance. Studies of
Donald Trump, however, found that he drew significant support from white Americans with less
education and privilege. We evaluate wealthy and non-wealthy Americans’ financial support for Trump,
compared to other candidates, by constructing a comprehensive dataset of property values matched to
contributions and voter files. We find Trump underperformed among wealthy Republican donors while
mobilizing new non-wealthy donors. Trump also diversified the donorate, especially by education. That is,
Trump built an unusual coalition of wealthy and non-wealthy donors. Our results support an alternative,
“plutopopulist” model of Trump’s financial base. This study demonstrates the importance of studying
both non-wealthy and wealthy Americans, the group who give the most but whose individual behavior has
been studied the least.