Former U.S. President Donald Trump is estimated to have secured over $400 million in campaign funds for the presidential election between April and June.
The $400 million is comparable to the campaign funds Trump raised during the 2016 presidential election. Previously lagging behind President Joe Biden in fundraising, Trump has significantly narrowed the gap in the second quarter, receiving strong support from Wall Street financiers and Silicon Valley venture investors.
The shift in funding from Biden to Trump, along with a surge in small donations due to his perceived judicial risk of being branded as a witch hunt, seems to have been brought about by a wave of anti-Israel protests in the U.S. in response to Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
Expecting further increases in the third quarter
The Trump campaign fund is expected to see significant growth in the future.
Trump’s campaign gained momentum after he survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. This incident has bolstered his image as a strongman, pushing him closer to a potential victory in the upcoming November election.
Support for Trump has increased since Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly endorsed him.
Donations for the third quarter are also expected to rise sharply.
On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that the Trump campaign, having already set a record for fundraising in the second quarter, is likely to announce further increases when its Political Action Committees (PACs) reveal their financials this weekend.
The Financial Times estimates that the over $400 million raised in the second quarter is triple what the campaign gathered in the first quarter and double the amount raised during the same period in the 2020 election cycle.
These donations indicate a significant shift in the electoral landscape from Biden to Trump as early as the second quarter.
Judicial risk replaced with witch hunt
The decisive moment for the reversal in fundraising between the Trump and Biden camps was the conviction of 34 major crimes against Trump in the Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30.
The jury agreed with the prosecution’s claim that Trump had paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 from company funds to silence her about their alleged affair before the 2016 election.
However, after the guilty verdict, the campaign fundraising landscape shifted dramatically.
Trump was perceived as a victim of political witch-hunting, leading to a flood of donations, while Biden’s campaign funds drastically decreased.
On May 31, the day after the verdict, more than 450,000 individuals donated to the Trump camp.
Trump has enjoyed the reflex benefit of increased support every time he faces judicial risk.
A record amount of donations was also made the day after Trump took a mugshot at the Fulton County Court in Georgia on charges of trying to overturn the election results on August 24 last year.
At that time, about 85,000 people sent donations to the Trump camp.
In contrast, the Biden camp announced on July 15 that the amount of donations raised in the second quarter was $270 million. This is comparable to the funds raised during Biden’s 2020 campaign.
However, this is only about half of the $400 million secured by the Trump camp.
