Despite leaving office and barring from leading social media platforms, former President Donald J. Trump was the GOP’s most dominant fundraiser in the first half of 2021 and ended in June with a war chest of more than $100 million, according to a filing. New federal campaign filings this weekend.
Trump has raised far more money than any other Republican via WinRed, the party’s primary processing site for online donations, records show, and more than each of the three major fundraising arms of the Republican Party itself. Nearly $102 million in cash on hand was more than every party committee.
The second most powerful online fundraiser among Republican politicians was Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina GOP response handed In President Biden’s first address to Congress in the spring. Mr. Scott has raised $7.8 million online.
Trump’s advisers inaccurately announced Saturday that his “political committees raised nearly $82 million” in the first six months of 2021.
That number amounted to at least $23 million in transfers to new PACs that were already collected last year in other accounts linked to Trump, according to an analysis of federal filings.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately comment on the discrepancy other than defending the accountability of the process.
Finally, WinRed filings showed that Mr. Trump had amassed more than $56 million online in various accounts in the first six months of the year.
The largest stake, $34.3 million, came in a joint account with the Republican National Committee, known as the Trump Committee Make America Great Again; Trump’s Political Action Committee is set to take 75 percent of what went into the joint account, and the party gets 25 percent.
In addition, Mr. Trump has raised more than $21 million online live in two new Save America political action committees that he controls.
Trump has made denying the fact that he lost the 2020 election – which Biden won by a popular vote margin of seven million – a cornerstone of the post-presidency. He has repeatedly argued, without evidence, that the election was decided fraudulently even after losing waves of legal challenges, including to the Supreme Court.
He attributed that to the phony fight for his financial backing. “On behalf of the millions of men and women who share my anger and want me to continue to fight for the truth, I am grateful for your support,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
The campaign fundraising data, submitted to the Federal Election Commission, covers the first six months of 2021.
Trump has raised by far the most money online among any Republican, though he paused many of his online requests from January 6, the day of the Capitol riots, to the end of February.
Mr. Trump gave his first post-presidential speech, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in late February and urged supporters to present it to him rather than any other Republican entity, He positioned himself as a potential competitor for the current Republican Party apparatus.
“There is only one way to contribute to our effort to elect ‘America First’ Republican governors and, in turn, to make America great again,” Mr. Trump said on February 28. This is by Save America, PAC, and DonaldJTrump.com. “
Mr. Trump has racked up an abundance of donations: nearly $3.5 million through various political action committees.
Records show that it was also WinRed’s biggest single day of 2021.
Mr Trump’s public events and statements appear to be closely intertwined with fundraising. Trump, for example, brought up the short-lived of what served as a blog page to share his thoughts and opinions on political developments, called “From the Office of Donald J. Trump,” which was widely derided in early May as a poor alternative to a social media platform. the page soon canceled.
But the site appears to have made real money for Operation Trump.
His Save America committee raised an average of $108,000 in the five days leading up to the launch of the Office page; PAC raised an average of $421,000 per day over the next five days, including more than $900,000 in one day.
Much of the money raised by the Make America Great Again Trump Committee came through Mr. Trump’s recurring donation program, which has directed countless supporters to inadvertently make recurring donations through the use of predetermined funds.
a New York Times investigation This year it showed how the program sparked a wave of fraud complaints and claims for refunds, which continued into 2021.
Trump’s fundraising slowed over the first six months of the year. In January, month Capitol riot And his subsequent accusation In the final days of his presidency, Mr. Trump raised $13.8 million that went to the Trump Committee on Make America Great Again.
By June, that amount, although still a solid $2.6 million, had shrunk, roughly speaking, through recurring donations. As of July, party officials have halted withdrawals, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s internal financial transactions.
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