More than a quarter of the donations came from first-time contributors, an official with his campaign claims
Former US President Donald Trump © Getty Images / Shane Bevel
Former US president Donald Trump has raised over $5 million in the 48 hours since he was indicted by a New York grand jury on Thursday night, an official with his 2024 campaign told Axios on Saturday.
After raising $4 million in the first 24 hours following the indictment, the campaign raked in another $1 million in the second 24 hours, defying even campaign officials’ own expectations, the source said.
“This is someone who has run twice for president of the United States,” senior adviser Jason Miller told Axios, marveling that “there’s a whole new group of Trump supporters who are angered by what they see as this political persecution.”
More than a quarter of the first day’s haul came from first-time donors, the Trump 2024 website revealed in a Friday press release, adding that donations came in from all 50 US states in the first five hours after the announcement.
The campaign contrasted the average donation size, $34, with the “billions of dollars” spent by “special interest donors” to sway elections, and a representative told Axios more than 16,000 volunteers had signed up on its website in the first 24 hours post-indictment.
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In a press release hailing the windfall on Friday, the campaign praised “the American people” for recognizing what it described as “a disgraceful weaponization of our justice system by a Soros-funded prosecutor.” While fact-checkers have attempted to distance Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting the case against Trump, from liberal financier George Soros, the philanthropist indirectly funded Bragg’s 2021 campaign through donations to racial-issues PAC Color of Change, while Soros’ son and daughter-in-law both donated directly to Bragg’s campaign.
Trump plans to travel to Manhattan to surrender for a Tuesday arraignment, at which point the indictment against him will be unsealed. While reportedly including as many as two dozen counts, some of them felonies, it is assumed to be based on Trump’s alleged $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 via his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The former president is the first current or former US head of state to be indicted. Trump has repeatedly insisted he did nothing illegal and does not plan on letting the matter interfere with his 2024 campaign. Polls conducted since the indictment show it has boosted his poll numbers significantly over primary rival Ron DeSantis.
