Donald Trump’s donations increase by $400 million as his financial battle with Joe Biden intensifies

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Fundraising groups aligned with Donald Trump raised more than $400 million for his presidential campaign between April and June, a record for the second quarter and nearly as much as was raised in the entire 2016 campaign, according to a Financial Times analysis of federal filings.

The figure is expected to grow as more political action committees report later this week, and is three times the first quarter total and nearly double donations during the same period in the 2020 election.

The huge revenue, which will help Trump, a Republican, surpass Democratic rival President Joe Biden, came from small donors infuriated by Trump’s conviction in New York state and from billionaires flocking to his campaign.

On May 31, the day after Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, pro-Trump groups received more than 450,000 donations, breaking the previous record of about 85,000 donations in a single day the day after Trump’s mugshot was taken in Georgia.

The groups, which reported that legal costs have ballooned to more than $84 million since the start of the campaign, have used some of the money they raised to help Trump fight a “hush-payment” lawsuit in New York and charges by special counsel Jack Smith that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and improperly concealed classified documents.

Biden had an advantage in the fundraising race while Trump used donations to beat out his rivals in the Republican primary and pay his legal fees. By the end of March, groups supporting Biden had raised a combined $413 million, while groups supporting Trump had received about $326 million.

Further documents relating to June are expected to be filed in the coming days, providing more details about the funding dispute between the two sides.

A pro-Biden committee, which filed its second-quarter report on Monday, reported raising $270 million during the period, roughly the same amount donated by Biden’s supporters during the same period of the 2020 campaign.

Many more groups, including the president’s official campaign and one of Biden’s main super PACs, are due to report by the end of the week, which will increase the total, but Democrats are concerned the president’s fundraising could struggle following his poor performance in the June 27 debate with Trump.

Trump’s woes, including his criminal trial and Saturday’s assassination attempt, have prompted billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to donate.

Banking scion Tim Mellon is President Trump’s biggest donor, giving $75 million to pro-Trump super PACs, including $50 million the day after the former president was convicted of falsifying business records to hide an affair with a porn star before the 2016 election. Former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter donated $10 million after the conviction.

The momentum has continued into the third quarter.Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures, are among those now planning to donate to the Trump campaign, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of their plans.

The two are Democrats [than Republicans] “The U.S. really means it, but we’re not making progress under this administration,” the person said, adding that he feels more hopeful about President Trump’s vision for American technology.

After the former president survived on Saturday, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman publicly supported him and hinted at the possibility of further large donations.

Musk responded to a Wall Street Journal report that he plans to donate $45 million a month to Trump for the remainder of the campaign: Posts He posted a meme with the words “FAKE GNUS” on X. But then he responded to a post that read, “Elon Musk went from being an Obama supporter to pledging $180 million to help Donald Trump win. The woke left is so messed up. It’s awful,” with “Yeah.”