How “The Nelson Mandela of America” Is Making Bank Off His Criminal Trial
“I’m catching up on my fucking sleep ’cause I’m bored,” Trump told one source.
IN THE FIRST WEEK OF HIS CRIMINAL TRIAL, Donald Trump raised about $5.6 million online by warning his small dollar-donors that the “Deep State” was out to lock him up.
“I JUST STORMED INTO COURT,” one fundraising email read when jury selection began last week. “But instead, I’m stuck in Biden’s Corrupt Court AGAIN facing 34 FELONIES & LIFE IN PRISON. TALK ABOUT TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!”
That message brought in about $1.6 million, according to a source familiar with internal Trump fundraising numbers. The source said Trump then raised about $1 million a day through Friday, which was about 20 percent more than the March daily average for fundraising. The average donation was $27.
The trial will continue to be the top fundraising draw for the campaign’s digital program because small-dollar donors see it as a call to arms and the campaign sees it as a the best way to pay his legal bills and catch up to President Biden, who has a sizable fundraising lead.
“Our people feel this is a personal attack on them. They know this is bullshit and this is how they fight back,” said a Trump adviser. “It’s not ideal. But we’re making lemonade outta lemons.”
ON TUESDAY, TRUMP HEIGHTENED the tension and brinkmanship by again taking to Truth Social and calling out Judge Juan Merchan as he decides whether the defendant violated a gag order, mainly by bashing the prosecution’s witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, as a perjurer.
“If they lock [Trump] up for telling the truth, our fundraising will go supernova,” the Trump adviser told The Bulwark. “They don’t have the balls.”
Prosecutor Chris Conroy made clear to the court that he was mindful of turning Trump into a MAGA martyr.
“We are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty,” he said, adding that Trump apparently wants to go to jail: “Defendant seems to be angling for that.”
Trump pollster John McLaughlin said this wasn’t just about fundraising.
“It’s more about exposing Biden’s real motives to lock up his political opponent,” he said. “The key is taking a really bad situation and turning it into an opportunity to help win the election. Biden and his supporters are intent on making Trump the Nelson Mandela of America.”
TRUMP HAS MADE NO SECRET of his annoyance at being stuck in court. Forced to sit quietly and deprived of his steady stream of caffeinated Diet Cokes, which at Mar-a-Lago are served to him with regularity by ever-attendant waitstaff, Trump has been caught micronapping at the defense table.
“I’m catching up on my fucking sleep ’cause I’m bored,” he told one source.
But being in court has some advantages for Trump’s cash-starved campaign: The reduced campaign footprint and free-media blitz is saving money on travel and events. New campaign finance reports released Saturday show Biden and the Democratic National Committee together raised $42 million more, spent $31 million more, and banked $64 million more than Trump and the Republican National Committee for the month of March. The finance reports also show that the main political committee Trump has used to fund legal expenses, Save America PAC, is being bled dry by his multiple criminal and civil cases. Since January 2023, Save America has spent about $60 million on legal fees, an average of about $4 million a month.
Now that he’s in a six-week criminal trial, Trump’s legal defense could cost even more. And Biden is creeping up in the polls.
Trump campaign advisers brush off any talk of financial trouble by pointing to what they say was a record $50.5 million single-night fundraiser two weeks ago from high-dollar donors. They say Trump’s campaign and legal bills will be covered—but they’re short on specifics.
“Will Biden have more money? Yes. He’s the incumbent. Will we have enough? Definitely,” another source familiar with his fundraising said. “The legal bills suck, but they’re getting taken care of. Trump is doing what he needs to do.”
“There’s wall-to-wall coverage. So why not take advantage of that? What would he raise money over if not for the trial?” said Eric Wilson, a Republican digital consultant. “What you’re trying to do with digital fundraising is to get a donation link into someone’s email box or into a text message of a person when they feel compelled to donate. That’s why you send out so many links. You need to stay top of mind and current so you’re at the top of the inbox when they’re outraged or aware of something that’s important. With the wall-to-wall coverage of the Trump criminal trial, he’s the center of attention.”
Last August, Trump raised the most in a single day from small-dollar donors—$4.2 million—by promoting his Fulton County Jail mugshot in the Georgia election interference case, according to an analysis by campaign finance expert Rob Pyers. Pyers’s data, drawn from the joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the Save America PAC, show that Trump’s second-biggest daily haul, nearly $4 million, came months before, in April 2023, when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg first indicted him. His third-highest daily fundraising total came two weeks earlier, when New York Attorney General Letitia James was trying to enforce a $454 million business fraud against him.
“Our top performing topics will always be rapid response breaking news, with lawfare at the top,” said a Trump campaign source familiar with his digital fundraising efforts. “Any time President Trump is in the news, the campaign raises more.”
Other Trump finance programs come from the sale of MAGA hats, links to poll questions, and a program asking donors to pick whom they want to see as Trump’s running mate.
And Trump is keen to preserve his exclusivity as a donation machine: Co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita have repeatedly warned other candidates to stop using his name and likeness without permission. Last week, they told the campaigns that did use Trump as a fundraising draw to give Trump a cut.
Mike Nellis, a Democratic digital fundraiser, said he understands why Trump is raising money from his legal challenges because the cases are central to his message:
For Trump, this strategy makes a lot of sense. His whole value proposition is grievance politics: Everybody’s out to get me, everybody’s out to get my supporters. The system is rigged. And he desperately needs the money to pay for all these legal fees because he’s in so much hot water. So it doesn’t just make sense, it’s on-brand.
“If I were Trump’s guy, would I feel great about it? No,” Nellis said. “But I’m not Trump’s guy.”
If my math is correct, the $5.6 million they raised in one week represents at most about 207,000 people at $27 on average. Some may have donated more than once, so probably even fewer for the week. Those numbers I find somewhat reassuring, that's a long way from 74 million votes.
Donald Trump has always had a part of himself which is a predator. In the past, he’s had people do his dirty work. But now that he’s in isolation and sitting in a chair for all the world to see he reminds me of a deep bottom feeding fish called an “Angler Fish”. It sits on the bottom of the ocean, mouth open wide and parades from his mouth this fascinating little worm shaped lure which bobs and dips while he remains perfectly motionless. Fish don’t see the Angler Fish for the predator he is and in curiosity draw just close enough to be consumed and one mighty gulp.
Donald Trump is a predator of the of the curious, the weak, and the vulnerable. He has never stepped down off the stage of enticement. Donald is a one act show and even on trial: It’s the same old, same old.