Former President Donald Trump’s crusade and the Republican Party raised $34. 8 million in the six hours after Trump was found guilty of 34 counts in his “hush money” trial, the crusade announced Friday, a staggering figure that is only part of what they raised in the crusade. throughout the month of April.
The campaign said Thursday’s sum came mostly from small donors, 30% of whom were new entrants to WinRed, the GOP’s fundraising platform. Fundraising totals will only be able to be verified after campaign results are submitted to the Federal Election Commission next month.
A CBS News investigation into Trump’s campaign fundraising through April found that he had gained an influx of donations following key moments in his legal battles. Ahead of his sentencing Thursday, documents filed through the FEC show Trump’s two most productive days of fundraising were April 4, 2023, when he was arraigned in New York, and Aug. 25, 2023, the day after his photograph was released in his separate felon case in Georgia.
Trump’s fundraising also peaked when he indicted through federal grand juries in Florida in June 2023 and in Washington, D. C. , in August 2023. He was also shocked when some other New York court ordered him to pay $454 million in penalties and interest on his principal. . civil fraud case in February.
Between his conviction in the Hush Cash case and Friday afternoon, Trump’s team spent at least $94,900 on Facebook and Instagram classified ads, more than double what the crusade spent in the week before the trial concluded, according to Meta data. Ad library. The classified ads describe Trump as a “political prisoner” and claim Thursday will be a “dark day in America. ”
“I WAS JUST CONVICTED IN A RIGGED TRIAL,” MANY ADS BEGIN. Trump denounced the trial as “rigged” and the tariffs as a “scam” in remarks at Trump Tower on Friday.
The classified ads direct users to WinRed, a Republican fundraising site that crashed minutes after the verdict. The crusader said the technical outage was due to increased traffic on the site.
The Trump campaign and the Republican Party raised about $76 million in April, surpassing the monthly total raised by President Biden and the Democratic Party for the first time this election cycle. FEC filings show Democrats have more cash, but an influx of post-conviction donations can help Trump catch up.
Trump’s classified ads in the wake of the verdict echo the theme of his rhetoric during the trial: that the charges against him were part of a politically motivated effort by Democrats to weaken his campaign. One of his most-watched classified ads prior to his conviction repeated the lie that the trial had been conducted through the Biden administration, when in fact it was a matter of state prosecuted through the Manhattan District Attorney.
Trump has rallied his supporters by calling himself the victim of a political “witch hunt,” a word he has used in at least 382 posts on his Truth Social platform and in various social media ads.
Trump is now doubling down on his rhetoric, urging those who visit his WinRed donation page to “NEVER GIVE UP” under a photo of the photo that once helped him raise millions.
For its part, Biden’s crusade called Trump “unbalanced” and “consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retaliation” following his remarks on Friday.
The president himself commented on the verdict for the first time later that day, telling the White House that the verdict reaffirmed to the “American that no one is above the law. ”