Campaign officials overseeing fundraising for Donald Trump's third bid to be elected president were privately relieved that the Department of Justice announced the indictment of the former president last week because donations were lagging.
According to a report from CNN's Kristen Holmes, concerns were growing among Trump insiders that the rumored indictment related to the sensitive documents he allegedly refused to return to the government would come after the quarter closed – and they needed the fundraising boost.
Speaking with host Brianna Keillar, Holmes stated, "When you look at it, most of it is coming from digital fund-raising which is usually those small-dollar donors. As we have been reporting, he's seen some major defections in those high-dollar donors in this campaign cycle, but they said they were going to get that money from small-dollar donors and that's what he does."
"This is significant for a number of reasons," she elaborated. "They did get a huge boost after that Manhattan arraignment and after the Manhattan indictment. When I was talking to someone about this potential federal indictment, I actually had someone say to me on the campaign, 'Well, I hope it comes before the fourth quarter meaning that they were hoping that they could get that fund-raising boost again if there was a federal indictment, and now we see they actually have."
"I'm told they were a little bit concerned about it, that there had been a lag in those fund-raising numbers and they weren't sure if there is going to be some kind of fatigue," she continued. "He's already been indicted; the shock, the surprise, is it gone, is the outrage gone? Clearly it's not."
"Whether or not this is a sustainable model to have lagging fundraising in the middle and then have an indictment, which his team does believe there are more indictments are coming, obviously has yet to be seen like most things with Donald Trump," she concluded.
According to a report from MSNBC, the Trump campaign delayed reporting it post-indictment cash haul for several days before reporting numbers considerably less than after he was indicted on tax fraud charges in a Manhattan courtroom -- $6.6 million compared to $12 million.
You can watch the conversation at this link.
CNN 06 15 2023 13 01 22youtu.be
