Trump team raised $141 million in May, as criminal trial fuels donations
By Kate Sullivan and Fredreka Schouten, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $141 million in May for former President Donald Trump’s reelection effort, the campaign said Monday – a dramatic boost in fundraising over the previous month’s haul as the Trump team works to erase President Joe Biden’s longstanding financial advantage.
The campaign said a quarter of the donors in May were first-time contributors this cycle and pointed to Trump’s criminal trial in New York and conviction on 34 felony counts as a driver of the donations. The campaign previously had announced bringing in $53 million online in the 24 hours after his conviction last week, and campaign officials on Monday said that one-day surge accounted for more than a third of the total May haul.
The campaign also said that organizations supporting Trump raised an additional $150 million in May.
“We are moved by the outpouring of support for President Donald J. Trump. The American people saw right through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged trial, and sent Biden and Democrats a powerful message – the REAL verdict will come on November 5th,” Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a news release.
Trump has repeatedly and falsely accused Biden of engineering his criminal prosecution in New York, which was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Some fundraising committees that are part of the presidential campaign orbit will not have to file fundraising reports until July.
“We’ll see how the numbers actually shake out come July, but one thing’s for certain: Trump’s billionaire friends are propping up the campaign of a white collar crook because they know the deal – they cut him checks and he cuts their taxes while working people and the middle class pay the tab,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement to CNN.
After trailing Biden earlier this year in fundraising, Trump’s team reported outraising Biden’s political operation for the first time in April, bringing in some $76 million with the GOP that month and surpassing the $51 million that the Biden campaign said it had raised with the Democratic National Committee.
The Trump campaign did not disclose how much cash on hand it had stockpiled at the end of May, and Biden’s team has not yet released any fundraising figures for May. Presidential campaigns must report fundraising and spending details to federal regulators later this month.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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