Donald Trump raises US$7 million for 2024 campaign following federal indictment
- The ex-US president’s claim that he is being politically persecuted continues to resonate with his diehard supporters
- Most Republicans – 81 per cent in a recent poll – believe the charges over Trump’s handling of classified documents are politically motivated
Former US president Donald Trump’s 2024 White House campaign said on Wednesday he had raised US$7 million since being indicted on federal charges last week, as his message of political persecution continues to resonate with diehard supporters.
“President Trump Raises Over $6.6 Million and Counting Since Deranged Jack Smith Announced Political Prosecution,” Trump’s campaign wrote in an email to supporters on Wednesday, referring to the US special counsel investigating him.
Over US$4.5 million came from digital fundraising while US$2.1 million was raised from a donor event on Tuesday at Trump’s Bedminster Club in New Jersey.
A spokesman for Trump, who is the front runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, later said in an email that fundraising had passed the bar of US$7 million since the indictment was announced on Thursday.
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Donald Trump slams US President Biden after pleading not guilty in classified documents case
In the indictment, Trump was accused of illegally retaining classified government documents after leaving the White House and then conspiring to obstruct a federal probe of the matter.
He has sought to frame the charges as a Democratic-led attack to knock him out of the 2024 race – and one ultimately designed to hurt Republicans, 30 per cent of whom are considered unwavering Trump supporters.
“They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after YOU,” Trump wrote in a fundraising email earlier on Wednesday, the day after he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts in court.
Trump indictment’s missing link: why did he do it?
Polling suggests Trump’s strategy is working: a vast majority of Republicans – some 81 per cent – believe the charges are politically motivated, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
Trump also enjoyed a fundraising bump from charges in New York as part of a case involving hush money paid to a porn star.
After word emerged in March that Trump was going to be charged, his campaign raised US$7 million in three days, according to senior adviser Jason Miller.
Trump’s nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has a roughly US$85 million political war chest, currently held in a state account.
