Trump's campaign donations surge to $400 million

The analysis of federal filing documents by the Financial Times shows that fundraising groups allied with Donald Trump raised over $400 million for his presidential campaign between April and June, setting a record for total fundraising in the second quarter, nearly matching the total amount raised during Trump's entire 2016 campaign.

This figure is three times the total donations in the first quarter and about double the total donations during the same period of the 2020 election, and it may grow further as more political action committee reports are released this weekend.

This unexpected windfall positions the Republican to potentially surpass his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden. It comes from small donors outraged by Trump's criminal conviction in New York, as well as billionaires flocking to his campaign team.

On May 31, the day after Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony, groups supporting Trump received over 450,000 donations. This broke the previous record of about 85,000 donations received the day after he was photographed as a suspect in Georgia. According to reports, the legal fees for these groups have risen to over $84 million since the campaign began. They are using part of the funds raised to help Trump fight the "hush money" case in New York, as well as the charges brought against him by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who accuses Trump of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results and improperly withholding classified documents.

Biden has been leading in the money race, while Trump has been using donor funds to defeat opponents in the Republican primaries and to pay for legal fees. As of the end of March, groups supporting Biden had raised a total of $413 million, while groups supporting Trump had received about $326 million.

More reports regarding June's filings are expected in the coming days, which may provide a more comprehensive view of the fundraising battle between the campaign teams.

Committees aligned with Biden submitted their second-quarter reports on Monday, stating they raised $270 million during this period, roughly equivalent to the total donations from their supporters at the same stage of the 2020 campaign.

More groups, including the president's official campaign team and a major super PAC supporting Biden, will report this weekend, which will increase the total amount, but Democrats are concerned that the president's fundraising may falter after a poor performance in the debate with Trump on June 27.

Trump's predicaments, including his criminal trial and threats to his life on Saturday, have spurred donations from billionaires ranging from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. Banking heir Tim Mellon is Trump's largest known donor, having donated $75 million to a super PAC supporting Trump, with $50 million given the day after Trump was convicted for falsifying business records to cover up an affair with a porn star before the 2016 election. Former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter donated $10 million after the verdict.

This momentum has continued into the third quarter. According to insiders, the founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, as well as two of Silicon Valley's most prominent figures—Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz—are also among those planning to donate to Trump's campaign team.

The insider stated that these two "are essentially more inclined towards the Democrats (rather than the Republicans), but have not made progress with the current administration," believing that Trump's vision for American technology is more promising.

After the former president's narrow escape last Saturday, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman publicly supported him, which could signal more large donations to come.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to give Trump $45 million per month in the upcoming campaign, to which Musk responded on X with a meme that read "FAKE GNUS." However, he later replied to a post saying "Yeah," which stated: "Elon Musk has gone from an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to support Trump. The woke left really messed up. What a mess."