Trump Got More Donations Than Biden After Conviction
A whopping $50 million donation from a single nepo baby put him over the top.
AP (“Trump dwarfs Biden in latest fundraising numbers in show of political force after felony convictions“):
Donald Trump’s campaign outraised President Joe Biden by more than $60 million last month, according to federal filings that detailed the Republican fundraising explosion sparked by Trump’s felony convictions.
Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee together raised a robust $85 million in May and reported $212 million in the bank at the end of the month. The strong showing does not include roughly $40 million raised by Biden and his top surrogates in recent days — or a separate $20 million donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pro-Biden groups.
Still, Trump’s fundraising for, for one month at least, seemed to dwarf Biden’s, according to the filings made public Thursday.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said it raised a jaw-dropping $141 million in May, including tens of millions donated immediately after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in the New York hush money case. At the same time, billionaire Timothy Mellon donated a stunning $50 million to a pro-Trump super PAC the day after Trump’s guilty verdict, according to the filings.
Overall, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee reported more than $170 million in the bank at the end of May, although Biden’s campaign questioned whether the groups were devoting resources to cover Trump’s legal fees.
“Our strong and consistent fundraising program grew by millions of people in May, a clear sign of strong and growing enthusiasm for the president and vice president every single month,” said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. “The money we continue to raise matters, and it’s helping the campaign build out an operation that invests in reaching and winning the voters who will decide this election –- a stark contrast to Trump’s PR stunts and photo-ops that he’s pretending is a campaign.”
Taken together, the numbers detailed in the campaigns’ latest Federal Election Commission filings suggest Democrats may still maintain a cash advantage in the 2024 presidential contest. But almost four months before Election Day, Trump’s side is closing the gap — if it isn’t closed already.
POLITICO (“Trump raised so much last month he erased Biden’s cash advantage“):
Former President Donald Trump’s huge May fundraising haul erased President Joe Biden’s longstanding cash advantage as the two gear up for a rematch.
Trump’s campaign had $116.6 million in the bank at the end of May, compared to $91.6 million for Biden.
It wasn’t due to poor fundraising on the incumbent’s part — Biden’s campaign saw a decent fundraising rebound in May after a weak showing the month prior. But Trump’s fundraising while he was on trial in New York that month, punctuated in the final days when he was convicted, was enough to surpass Biden in campaign cash, something that had long been seen as a crucial strength of his.
The latest campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission also revealed how Biden has continued to build out his campaign apparatus, while Trump has largely held onto cash. And down-ballot races are also heating up, with party committees and other outside groups bringing in — and spreading around — more cash than before.
After months of a relatively sleepy start, the real money race has begun.
Those are among the takeaways of the campaign finance reports filed by presidential campaigns, party committees and a handful of other groups on Thursday. The reports covered all activity for the month of May.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said they raised $141 million in May, a figure that included the significant fundraising boost after the former president’s criminal conviction on hush money charges. (The full breakdown behind that number won’t be available until mid-July, when Trump’s joint fundraising committees file their own reports.)
But the former president’s campaign filing Thursday showed a significant surge in the final two days of the month — the day the jury handed down a guilty verdict and the day after.
Just looking at large-dollar donations, the campaign reported receiving at least six times as many daily donations those two days compared to a typical day. And the fundraising spike was likely even greater, considering that doesn’t include unitemized donations of less than $200 or any donations that the joint fundraising contributions hadn’t yet transferred.
In total, Trump’s campaign and the RNC reported just over $170 million cash on hand combined at the end of May, overtaking Biden and the Democratic National Committee, which reported just shy of $157 million.
BBC (“Trump campaign gets $50m boost from single donor“):
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has received $50m (£39.5m) boost from the conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon, a federal filing showed on Thursday.
The Super-Pac fund called “MAGA Inc” disclosed to the Federal Election Commission that it took in more than $68m from donors last month.
Reuters reported that Mr Mellon, an heir of the Pittsburgh-based Mellon banking family, gave $50m. Another $10m came from billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein.
US media reported that Mr Mellon sent the donation the day after Trump was convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in his New York hush-money trial.
Mr Mellon has also been the biggest donor to independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, giving the pro-Kennedy Super-Pac American Values at least $20m.
Essentially, then, the difference in last month’s fundraising is that Trump got a $50 million donation from a billionaire whereas Biden got a paltry $20 million from another.
I’m skeptical that the money itself will much matter. Both candidates are so well-defined that it seems unlikely advertising, the traditional major campaign cost, will have much impact. And both can get all the “earned” media coverage they want, anyway.
To the extent it does matter, though, I’d give Biden the edge. First and foremost, he doesn’t have massive and growing legal bills to pay off so even relatively similar totals will be a net benefit to him. Second, the Democrats are considerably better organized after Trump destroyed the RNC machinery.
The plutocrats are voting with their obscene dollar amounts.
QFT.
I wouldn’t worry: Trump will get more convictions than Biden and Biden will get more donations in the end.
You mention Timothy Mellon is a nepo baby. Also a relation of Richard Mellon Scaife, back in the day the primary funder of Hillary’s “vast right wing conspiracy”. The quoted articles mention the Uileins, also nepo, Schlitz beer money. These people are the real “elites”, the ones MAGA don’t realize they’re voting for. What this country needs is a good 90% top marginal rate, like we had in the good old days.
“There’s a sucker born every minute.” Nah. Suckers aren’t born; they’re made.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/06/07/son-former-bucs-owner-donates-trump-campaign-protest-felony-conviction/
Two different fundraising numbers are at play here: funds raised, and cash on hand. It appears that Trump’s (so far) only victorious month in the fundraising race came down to the two days surrounding his conviction. That doesn’t seem like he’s set the stage for continued success. Unless he’s counting on more convictions. My understanding is that’s not likely due to the calendar, but with Trump anything’s possible I suppose.
Cash on hand is a factor of both how much you raised and how much you’ve previously spent. While Trump was bringing in paltry cash for the first few months of the year, the Biden campaign dumped major cash into locking up media markets around election day in all the major swing state markets. A lot of hooplah was made at the time since in some of these–Wisconsin primarily, IIRC–there’s little-to-no room on any tv station or newspaper for any Trump ads in the final weeks before the election.
They could’ve saved a few 10s of millions and bumped up their cash on hand numbers, but I’d rather them spend it like this.
I thought this was kind of interesting. Climate change effects have really been hurting Miami. They have a constant ongoing effort spending millions to try to keep up. At the same time the state is spending billions of dollars to offset the combo of rising seas and increased rain. So it makes for the interesting effect of DeSantis making it illegal to use the term climate change while spending huge amounts of money to combat those effects, and that doesnt even include the increased insurance costs.
Steve
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/06/miami-climate-change-floods/678718/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20240620&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily
This is a really smart move. Locking up media markets this far out is a good thing to do.
One of my first jobs in campaign politics was going to each major media outlet and getting a copy of the opposition’s media buys. It was really interesting to see who bought what airtime and when.
Nice, you celebrate Democrats and their minions in the career government functionary pool using the State to go after their political opponent.
Oh, you can argue, this law or that law, but it would be better of the top non-partisan attorneys in the country could figure out what law was broken or who was harmed. But in any case, there is a whole book on ‘Three felonies a day’ about how everyone can be prosecuted under the multitude of offices created to harass and eat out the substance of the citizens over the last century.
Wahhhh….
Oh and by the way, I don’t have any problem staying within the confines of the law. In fact, it’s pretty easy to do.
@JKB:
Tissue?
@Neil Hudelson:
Ah, this is that 3D chess I keep hearing about.
@steve:
A few years ago, my Miami-based str8 best friend (Berniebro turned Trumper turned RFK Jr. donor and fanboy) hosted me for ten days. I recall asking him, “Does it not bother you the ground is always wet? It hasn’t rained but I’m stepping in puddles.”
@DeD:
If Democrats and their minions can come after Trump for breaking the law, then Culverhouse isn’t as above the law as he certainly assumes someone as rich as he is must be.
@Scott F.:
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they want to return to the time where it sure was nice to be able to nightstick the colored folks with zero repercussions.
We really need to purge some billionaires. I’m thinking either confiscatory tax rates above $100M or death squads. Either. If you get $100M, there’s no good reason to go for more — you won the game of capitalism, game over, go enjoy your winnings, build a few monuments or something.
Every day when a billionaire wakes up and doesn’t think “I can solve child hunger in my state and still have enough left over for an absolutely worry free life” is a day they should lose a limb.
I am nothing if not a Utilitarian. If you can grind one person up and make them into pet food, and use the proceeds to save or greatly extend the lives of, say, 100 other people, don’t you have a moral responsibility to do so?
(That’s an oversimplification, as you would really want to look at quality years of life, rather than lives — an 80 year old doesn’t have the same value as a 25 year old, based on actuarial tables. Plus, think of all the cats you could feed on ground billionaire. So many variables.)
Also, I see that our local third rate Republican remains third rate.
@JKB: If someone conspires to and directs an effort to overthrow a lawfully-conducted election, yes, I think they should be prosecuted. Don’t you?
If someone steals highly sensitive government documents, stores them insecurely, shows them to other people, refuses to return them, lies about whether he has them, and hides them from people trying to recover them, I think they should be prosecuted. Don’t you?
Seriously, this is some of the worst garbage you’ve ever dropped here. I really expected more from you.
It seems clear from the many quotes and focus groups that one of the big things Trump supporters like about Trump is that he cheats
Does that describe you, then? Should that be our conclusion?
@JKB:
Even the intellectually challenged (looking at you, JKB) can read the indictments.
@Daryl:
“Attempted murder. Now honestly what is that? Can you win a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?”
Robert Terwilliger, Republican Politician.
@JKB: Ripped from the headlines…
Louisiana Orders Classrooms To Display All Ten Commandments That Trump Has Broken
@JKB: “Oh, you can argue, this law or that law, but it would be better of the top non-partisan attorneys in the country could figure out what law was broken or who was harmed.”
That’s funny. A jury of twelve people, only two of whom were lawyers, were able to figure out what law was broken and who was harmed, and they found Trump guilty on all counts.
Now you can keep repeating the moron rightwing talking points that “no one can say what the charges are.” Or you can insist that you’re not repeating talking points, and that you really are too stupid to understand what 12 strangers off the street managed to figure out. Either way, you look like a fool.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I recall reading the law does not provide money for schools to comply, and instead directs them to request donations. This is a golden opportunity for some enterprising Democrats in Louisiana to print thousands of “The Ten Commandments broken by trump” and donate them to as many schools as possible.
Also, they should have the full text of all, not just the common summary. For instance, the 10th reads: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
You know, you won’t covet your neighbor’s property.
@wr:
It gets worse. The Missouri AG is suing the NY AG and Manhattan DA for election interference.
Seriously. Do you think if the statute of limitations had expired, that der Kleineorangefuhrer lawyers would not have filed for dismissal on those grounds, and appealed the decision if the case were not dismissed?
This is just political grandstanding and harassment.
@Kathy: As late as 1899, Thorstein Veblen was referring to wives and children in families as being valuable economically primarily as chattel. The biggest progress on this question has happened mostly in the latter part of the 20th Century.
ETA: “This is just political grandstanding and harassment.” Yes. The saying goes “Politics ain’t bean bag,” but sometimes it seems to be Trivial Pursuits.
@steve: This shapes up as a bad hurricane year. A major storm hitting Florida near the election may cost the Republicans ‘bigly’.
@Richard Pohl: Why? Usually, disasters work against a sitting President.
The title is likely wrong. Trump didn’t get more donations. He got more dollars in donations. And it’s not an insignificant difference. Especially when I suspect those dollars will not be used to campaign (they will line Trump’s pockets and those of his grifting team).