NEW YORK (AP) — For former President Donald Trump, an image is price… greater than $7 million.
Trump’s marketing campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked on the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on costs that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election within the state and have become the primary former president in U.S. historical past to ever have a mug shot taken.
Spokesman Steven Cheung mentioned that, on Friday alone, the marketing campaign introduced in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day up to now.
The document haul underscores how Trump’s authorized woes have been a fundraising boon for his marketing campaign, at the same time as his political operation has spent tens of hundreds of thousands on his protection. The mounting authorized costs have additionally didn’t dent Trump’s standing within the Republican presidential major, with the previous president now routinely beating his rivals by 30 to 50 factors in polls.
While Trump described his look Thursday as a “terrible experience” and mentioned posing for the historic mug shot was “not a comfortable feeling,” his marketing campaign instantly seized on its fundraising energy.
Before he had even flown dwelling to New Jersey, his marketing campaign was utilizing it in fundraising pitches to supporters. Trump amplified that message each on his Truth Social website and by returning to X, the location previously generally known as Twitter, for the primary time in two-and-a-half years to share the picture and direct supporters to a fundraising web page.
Within hours, the marketing campaign had additionally launched a brand new line of merchandise that includes the picture that started with t-shirts and now consists of beer Koozies, bumper stickers, a signed poster, bumper stickers and mug shot mugs.
Cheung mentioned that contributions from those that had bought merchandise or donated with out prompting skyrocketed, particularly after Trump’s tweet.
The new contributions, he mentioned, had helped push the marketing campaign’s fundraising haul during the last three weeks to shut to $20 million. Trump in early August was indicted in Washington on felony costs associated to his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election within the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
At the identical time, Trump’s political operation has been burning by means of tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on attorneys as he battles costs in 4 separate jurisdictions. Recent marketing campaign finance submitting confirmed that, whereas Trump raised greater than $53 million throughout the first half of 2023 — a interval by which his first two prison indictments had been became a rallying cry that despatched his fundraising hovering — his political committees have paid out a minimum of $59.2 million to greater than 100 attorneys and legislation corporations since January 2021.
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