Trump campaign reports raising more than $7 million after Georgia booking

NEW YORK – For former President Donald Trump, an image is value… 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 fees 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 so far.

The report 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 fees have additionally did not dent Trump’s standing within the Republican presidential main, with the previous president now routinely beating his rivals by 30 to 50 factors in polls.

Whereas Trump described his look Thursday as a “horrible expertise” and mentioned posing for the historic mug shot was “not a cushty feeling,” his marketing campaign instantly seized on its fundraising energy.

Earlier than 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 Fact Social website and by returning to X, the positioning previously referred to as Twitter, for the primary time in two-and-a-half years to share the picture and direct supporters to a fundraising web page.

Inside 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 brand new contributions, he mentioned, had helped push the marketing campaign’s fundraising haul over the past three weeks to shut to $20 million. Trump in early August was indicted in Washington on felony fees 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.

On the similar time, Trump’s political operation has been burning by tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on legal professionals as he battles fees in 4 separate jurisdictions. Latest marketing campaign finance submitting confirmed that, whereas Trump raised over $53 million throughout the first half of 2023 — a interval by which his first two legal indictments had been became a rallying cry that despatched his fundraising hovering — his political committees have paid out at the least $59.2 million to greater than 100 legal professionals and regulation companies since January 2021.

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