According to preliminary numbers presented by the candidates’ campaigns, former President Donald Trump’s campaign fundraising surpassed President Joe Biden’s in May for the second consecutive month.
According to figures reported by Trump and the Republican National Committee, the former president’s operation raised $141 million last month compared to the $85 million reported by the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee. closing the large fundraising gap that the president’s campaign had achieved.
Criminal conviction as a fundraising strategy
According to the Trump campaign report, 53 of those millions were donated in the hours following the announcement of the guilty verdict for the commission of 34 serious crimes, making him the first former president of the United States to be criminally convicted.
This is not the first time Trump uses his legal problems to raise electoral funds.
After his formal “arrest” in Atlanta in the case against him for trying to overturn the election in that state when he posed for a mugshot, Trump used that image to print on T-shirts and other items that were sold on the Trump website. his campaign, raising $4.18 million in just one day.
According to a person familiar with the totals cited by Politicalthose were the most lucrative 24 hours for the Trump campaign so far.
In his fundraising efforts, Trump, without providing any evidence, typically presents himself as a victim of President Biden’s abuse of the judicial system against him.
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said, “President Trump’s record-breaking fundraising numbers demonstrate that corrupt Joe Biden’s witch hunt against President Trump, skyrocketing inflation, and illegal invasion of the border have united the American people around the fact that another four years of Biden will mean the end of our country.”
Billionaires for Trump
Along with the lucrative outrage from Trump supporters following the conviction in New York, a group of billionaires primarily from the technology, financial and energy sectors, also opened their wallets to help Trump after the historic event.
On June 6, Silicon Valley investor David Sacks hosted a fundraising dinner for Trump at his San Francisco home, where the cheapest ticket cost $50,000, while a donation of $300,000 qualified. to a photo with the candidate.
According to a report from ForbesTimothy Mellon, heir to a vast banking fortune, has donated at least $75 million to pro-Trump groups, becoming the former president’s largest individual donor, and is also one of the largest financiers of Robert F. Kennedy’s candidacy. Jr.
According to a report from Washington Postat a fundraising dinner with oil and gas industry executives at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in May, Trump asked for a $1 billion donation.
The outlet, citing anonymous sources, said that Trump vowed to reverse dozens of Biden administration environmental rules and policies.
According to the source, Trump said that such a donation would be a “good deal,” because of the taxes and regulation that would be saved thanks to it.
Environmental activist organization Climate Power’s senior oil and gas adviser, Alex Witt, told the Washington Post that Trump’s promise is that he will do whatever the oil industry wants if they support him.
“They got a huge return on their investment during Trump’s first term, and Trump is making it very clear that they’re in for an even bigger payoff if he’s re-elected,” Witt said, adding that “with Trump, everything has a price.”
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