The total, which was fueled in part by his criminal conviction and cannot be confirmed until filings this month, is likely to help Donald Trump close the cash gap with President Biden.
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Former President Donald J. Trump during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York after his conviction in his criminal trial last week. He had a major increase in fund-raising after the verdict.
Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican National Committee collected a combined $141 million in May, campaign officials said on Monday, an enormous haul fueled in part by his criminal conviction last week.
That sum should help Mr. Trump continue his quest to close his yawning financial gap with President Biden and his own allied groups. Mr. Biden has yet to announce May fund-raising numbers, but based on Monday’s figures, he is likely to be outraised for the second month in a row. The $141 million figure matches what Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party raised in March and April combined.
The figures announced by Mr. Trump’s campaign, which cannot be verified until federal filings are released publicly this month, represent, by far, his strongest single month of fund-raising in 2024.
The fund-raising was powered by what Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chairwoman and the former president’s daughter-in-law, said on Sunday was $70 million raised by Mr. Trump and the R.N.C. in the 48 hours after Mr. Trump’s conviction.
The reported $141 million total consists of so-called hard dollars, which can be spent directly by aides at the Trump campaign and the R.N.C. The Trump campaign also said that even more cash, $150 million, had been secured last month by some unidentified “organizations supporting President Trump,” presumably a few of the outside groups that have backed his bid so far. These outside groups cannot coordinate spending with the campaign itself and have to pay more for units of advertising, and so the money they raise is generally seen as less efficient dollars.
The main super PAC backing Mr. Trump, MAGA Inc., declined a request for more specific information on its monthly fund-raising. Another, newer pro-Trump group, Right for America, has also had some early fund-raising success.
Even before his guilty verdict in Manhattan, Mr. Trump had been significantly improving his fund-raising performance since emerging as the presumptive Republican nominee.
Mr. Biden has consistently held an advantage in cash on hand, or the amount available to be spent. But in April, Mr. Trump and his allied groups outraised Mr. Biden and his groups for the first time. And in the 24 hours after Mr. Trump’s conviction, his campaign said that it had raised nearly $53 million online, a number that is presumably included in the $141 million May fund-raising total.
A Biden campaign spokesman declined to provide fund-raising numbers for the president and his allied groups.
In addition to his grass-roots support, Mr. Trump has been successfully reeling in major Republican donors who declined to support him during the primary race and have only recently returned home.
On Monday afternoon, for instance, the billionaire venture capitalist Doug Leone, who renounced Mr. Trump after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and then donated millions to a group backing Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida during his presidential campaign, said that he would back Mr. Trump again.
Shane Goldmacher and Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.
See more on: Donald Trump, 2024 Elections, Republican Party
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Source: nytimes.com
