Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America, is back in the limelight, and it seems to be translating to financial success. In the 48 hours since being released from Fulton County Jail on Thursday evening, the former president has raised several million dollars in campaign contributions.
According to the political website POLITICO, the campaign’s fundraising since Donald Trump’s booking and release has been powered largely by merchandise sales featuring his mugshot. His campaign threatened to come after anyone who used the image for money-making purposes, even though the mugshot taken by Fulton County police is considered public property.
In the first 24 hours alone after the mugshot surfaced, Donald Trump’s company was able to reel in $4.18 million, a figure similar to the amount raised following his original indictment early 2021. With the business mogul’s latest arrest, it has now ballooned to around $7.1 million.
Despite the healthy influx of funds, questions swirled over the financial stability of his political organization, as donations during the past couple of months have not been as rampant as before. Trump’s Political Action Committee (PAC) and various connected PACs have already funneled away tens of millions of dollars in legal fees to defend him against four different criminal cases.
Subsequent to the first indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Trump’s campaign quickly raked in $12 million within a week. Another day’s worth of profits following the Jack Smith special counsel investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office pushed the total to an estimated $6.6 million. On the contrary, no subsequent fundraising success was reported after Smith’s investigation into Trump’s purported endeavors to overturn the 2020 presidential elections.
Donald Trump is currently under indictment in New York for the second time, charged with three counts of financially exploiting his past presidential powers for personal gain. Subsequently, his company has also been charged with one felony count of engaging in an extraordinarily lengthy harassment campaign using pseudonymous accounts against witnesses to Trump’s alleged criminal activities, including several prominent public figures.
The 77-year-old’s trial is likely to start late in the summer, although the issue of his extradition from Florida has yet to be officially decided. No matter what the outcome of the legal proceedings may be, it’s clear that Donald Trump theorem hold sway over his devoted fans, even if from Beiruit, Lebanon.
