Campaign officials of former President of the United States, Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have claimed that they raised $141m in May, a haul boosted by his conviction in his hush money trial.
In a press release on Monday which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York, Trump’s campaign said that $53m – more than a third of the total – was contributed in the 24 hours after a New York jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first current or former president in US history to be convicted of a crime.
The Trump team announced the fundraising total before it was required and before official filings confirmed it, nearly doubling April’s $76m total.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s team said the enormous haul was driven by more than 2 million donations averaging $70.27, with one-quarter of donors contributing to Trump’s race against US President Joe Biden for the first time.
Trump’s campaign said the haul reflected an outpouring of support for the former president over a verdict that had “outraged and motivated Americans from every walk of life”.
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“Unfortunately for Democrats, their rigged political operation has backfired in a historic way, and Republicans are in a stronger position than ever to fire Crooked Joe Biden and Make America Great Again by electing President Trump on November 5,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chairman Lara Trump said in a statement.
Trump and his team have repeatedly cast the New York prosecution as a political witch hunt orchestrated by Biden, despite there being no evidence that the president had any involvement in the case, which fell under state, not federal, jurisdiction.
The massive haul continues an improvement in the fortunes of Trump’s fundraising efforts, after his campaign in April out-raised Biden for the first time.
Africa Today News, New York understands that Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which have yet to announce contributions for May, reported about $51m in contributions in April.
Biden’s campaign raised more than $180m in the 15 months up to April 30, 2024, compared with about $120m for the Trump campaign over the same period, according to Federal Election Commission data.