Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party officially kicked off their push to court major donors on Saturday with a high-profile fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida. The event, which included several business moguls, sports team owners and former Trump Administration officials, netted a whopping $50 million for the former president’s re-election campaign, organizers have said.
The “Inaugural Leadership Dinner” at Mar-A-Lago was chaired by billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, while co-chairs included hedge fund giant Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, oil executive Harold Hamm, hotelier Robert Bigelow and casino mogul Steve Wynn.
The fundraiser, which included an appearance from former First Lady Melania Trump, reportedly hauled in $50 million in total. This would eclipse the total raised by President Biden’s recent New York City event that was co-headlined by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. That event hauled in roughly 26 million and was hailed as a record-setting achievement by the corporate press and the president’s allies.
“It took three Democrat presidents to raise $25 million and one president to raise over $50 million, Donald J. Trump,” Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement after Saturday’s event.
Both the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have hailed the event as the start of a major fundraising push as the campaign seeks to keep pace with the Democrats. According to April fundraising figures, Trump and the RNC began the month with roughly $100 million in campaign funds, far below the Biden campaign’s $190 million.
Continued success with large donors will likely be key to closing the gap, as the former president has been far outpacing his rival when it comes to small dollar donations.
According to FEC records, 35 percent of Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign donations have been from big donors, or contributions greater than $2,000. Just 38 percent of the president’s current campaign donations have come from small donors, or contributions valued between $1 and $200.
As for the Trump campaign, 61 percent of campaign funds have come from small donors while just nine percent have come from big donors. Between 2020 and 2024, President Biden’s total donations from big donors have increased by 10 percentage points, while the former president’s numbers have decreased by the same margin
Leave a Reply