For former President Donald Trump, a photograph is worth over $7 million.
His campaign officials said he has raised $7.1 million since he booked himself into the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on Thursday, charged with illegally plotting to overturn the 2020 election. state, thus becoming the first former president in the history of the United States to be photographed by the authorities in prison.
Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said about $4.18 million had been raised on Friday alone, the highest level raised in a single day.
The record amount raised underscores how former President Trump’s legal challenges are helping his campaign, even as his political organization is spending tens of millions of dollars to guarantee his legal defense. The mounting criminal charges have also failed to damage his standing in the presidential race within the Republican Party. The former president consistently wins over his rivals by a margin of 30-50% in the polls.
Although former President Trump described Thursday’s appearance as a “terrible experience” and said he didn’t have “a good feeling” as he stood for the historic photo, his campaign benefited from the fundraiser. .
Not yet making the trip back to New Jersey, his campaign was using the photo to raise funds from supporters. Former President Trump reinforced this message on his social media site Truth Social, as well as returning to the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in nearly two and a half years to share the photo and direct supporters to a fundraising website.
Within hours, campaign officials had also rolled out a new line of products featuring his picture, which began with T-shirts and now includes posters, bumper stickers, coasters and coffee mugs.
Mr. Cheung said contributions from people who buy these products or simply donate funds without buying anything peaked especially after former President Trump sent the message.
He said that with the new contributions, the election campaign’s fundraising efforts over the past three weeks have reached nearly $20 million. In early August, former President Trump faced criminal charges in Washington for his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election in the period leading up to his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol.
At the same time, his political organization has spent tens of millions of dollars on lawyers while he faces charges in four different jurisdictions. According to documents newly filed by his election campaign, former President Trump raised more than $53 million during the first half of 2023 – the period during which the first two criminal cases against him turned into a call for support, which added in excess of the funds raised for it. His political committees have paid at least $59.2 million to more than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021./VOA
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