Trump Announces Nearly $53 Million Fundraising Haul After Guilty Verdict

Donald Trump’s campaign announced Friday evening that he had raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after his felony conviction, shattering online records for Republicans and raking in enough cash to help him close what has been a substantial financial gap with President Joe Biden.

It is hard to put the enormity of the sum into proper perspective, but it would nearly match in a single day the $58 million Trump’s main fundraising arm raised online in the last six months of 2023, according to federal records.

The campaign had said earlier Friday it had collected nearly $35 million in the hours after the verdict. By Friday evening, the campaign had revised the figure up to $52.8 million in the 24-hour period following Trump’s conviction.

“This momentum is just getting started,” Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, two of Trump’s top advisers, said in a joint statement.

The figures will not be verifiable until the campaign committees and WinRed, the online processing platform for Republicans, make their filings with the Federal Election Commission in the coming months.

In addition, the campaign had said Friday morning that nearly 30% of donors who gave online were new to WinRed, giving the former president an invaluable infusion of new people to tap for contributions as his campaign marches on to November.

The one-day haul was significantly more than the $4 million Trump raised when his mug shot was released in 2023, after his booking in Atlanta for his indictment there.

Cash has so far been one of Biden’s advantages in the race. Biden’s main campaign committee entered May with $84 million, compared to $49 million for Trump.

The 24-hour fundraising total could erase that edge, though Biden has said his campaign had another $100 million spread across accounts that he shared with the Democratic Party. Trump’s campaign has not disclosed its total cash on hand with party accounts.

The Biden campaign has leveraged its cash to advertise in key battleground states since Trump emerged as the Republican nominee and as Trump has been absent from the airwaves.

The post-verdict total was far greater than the $26 million that the Biden campaign had announced four years ago in the 24 hours after he had named Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential pick.

In April, Trump’s operation, working in concert with the Republican National Committee, announced that it had raised $76.2 million, beating for the first time what Biden’s shared operations with the Democratic National Committee brought in — $51 million.

The conviction appeared to be driving Democratic donations, as well, though to a much lesser extent.

ActBlue, which processes online contributions for Democrats, registered three of its four biggest hours of donations in all of 2024 on Thursday evening in the wake of the conviction, topping out near $1.3 million in a single hour, according to its online ticker.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .