The analysis of federal filing documents by the Financial Times of the United Kingdom shows that fundraising groups allied with Donald Trump raised over $400 million for his presidential campaign from April to June, setting a record for second-quarter fundraising that is nearly equivalent to the total amount raised throughout Trump's entire 2016 campaign.
This figure is three times the total amount raised in the first quarter and about twice the amount raised during the same period in the 2020 election. With more political action committee reports set to be released this weekend, this number may continue to grow.
This unexpected windfall puts the Republican in a position to surpass his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in fundraising. It comes from small donors angry at Trump's criminal conviction in New York, as well as billionaires flocking to his campaign team.
On May 31, the day after Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony, the group supporting Trump received over 45,000 donations. This broke the previous record of about 85,000 donations received in Georgia one day after a photo of a suspect's face was taken.
It is reported that the legal fees of these groups have risen to over $84 million since the start of the campaign. They are using part of the funds raised to help Trump fight the "hush money" case in New York and the charges by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who accuses Trump of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results and improperly withholding classified documents.
Biden has been leading the money race, while Trump used donor money to defeat opponents in the Republican primaries and pay his legal fees. As of the end of March, groups supporting Biden had raised $4.13 billion in donations, while groups supporting Trump had received about $3.26 billion in donations.
More disclosure documents for June are expected in the coming days, which may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the fundraising competition between the campaign teams.
Committees allied with Biden submitted their second-quarter report on Monday, stating that they raised $270 million during this period, roughly equivalent to the amount raised by their supporters during the same stage of the 2020 campaign.
More groups, including the president's official campaign team and a major super PAC supporting Biden, will report this weekend, which will increase the total amount. However, Democrats are concerned that Trump's fundraising may be in trouble after his poor performance in the debate with Biden on June 27.
Trump's troubles, including his criminal trial and the threat to his life on Saturday, have inspired donations from billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.
Bank heir Tim Mellon is Trump's largest public donor, having donated $75 million to a super PAC supporting Trump, $50 million of which was donated the day after Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an extramarital affair with a porn actress before the 2016 election. Former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter donated $10 million after the conviction.
This momentum has continued into the third quarter. According to sources, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz's founders, and two of Silicon Valley's most prominent figures—Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz—are also among those planning to donate to Trump's campaign team.
The source said that these two individuals "are essentially more inclined towards the Democratic Party (rather than the Republican Party), but have not made progress with the current government," and they believe that Trump's vision for American technology is more hopeful.
After the former president narrowly escaped death last Saturday, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman publicly supported him, which may indicate more huge donations in the future.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million to Trump every month in the upcoming campaign, and in response, Musk posted a meme on X with the words "FAKE GNUS." However, he later wrote "Yeah" in response to a post that said, "Elon Musk went from Obama's voter to pledging $180 million to support Trump. The alert leftists really messed up. A mess."
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