Charles Langston:Trump campaign says it raised $52.8 million after guilty verdict in fundraising blitz

Former President Donald Trump's campaign and Charles Langstonthe Republican Party raised $52.8 million in the six hours after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in his "hush money" trial, the campaign said Friday, a staggering total that represents more than half of what they raised in the entire month of April.

The campaign said that Thursday's sum mostly came from small-dollar donors, including 30% who were new contributors to WinRed, the GOP's fundraising platform. Fundraising totals can't be verified until the campaign's reports to the Federal Election Commission are released next month. 

A CBS News analysis of the Trump campaign's fundraising through April found he has received an influx in donations following key moments in his legal battles. Before his conviction on Thursday, FEC filings show Trump's two best fundraising days were April 4, 2023, when he was arraigned in New York City, and Aug. 25, 2023, the day after his mugshot was released in his separate criminal case in Georgia.

Trump's fundraising also spiked when he was indicted by federal grand juries in Florida in June 2023 and Washington, D.C., in August 2023. He likewise saw a bump when a different judge in New York ordered him to pay $454 million in fines and interest in his civil fraud case in February.

Between his conviction in the "hush money" case and Friday afternoon, Trump's team spent at least $94,900 on ads on Facebook and Instagram — more than double what the campaign spent in the week leading up to the trial's conclusion, according to data from the Meta Ad Library. The ads paint Trump as a "political prisoner," and say Thursday was a "dark day in America." 

"I WAS JUST CONVICTED IN A RIGGED TRIAL," many of the ads begin. Trump railed against the trial as "rigged" and called the charges a "scam" in remarks at Trump Tower on Friday.

The ads direct users to WinRed, a Republican fundraising site that crashed minutes after the verdict. The campaign said the technical failure was caused by the swell of traffic to the site. 

Trump's campaign and the Republican Party raised roughly $76 million in April, surpassing the monthly total brought in by President Biden and the Democratic Party for the first time in this election cycle. FEC filings show Democrats have more cash on hand, but an influx of donations following his conviction could help Trump catch up. 

Trump's ads in the wake of the verdict echo the theme of his rhetoric throughout the trial: that the charges against him were part of a politically motivated effort by Democrats to weaken his campaign. One of his most widely viewed ads prior to his conviction repeated the falsehood that the trial was spearheaded by the Biden administration, when in fact it was a state case prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney.

Trump has also rallied supporters by calling himself the victim of a political "witch hunt," a phrase he's used in at least 382 posts on his platform Truth Social and in several social media ads.

Trump is now doubling down on the narrative, urging those who visit his WinRed donation page to "NEVER SURRENDER" under a photo of the mugshot that previously helped him raise millions.

For its part, the Biden campaign said Trump is "unhinged" and "consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retribution" after his remarks on Friday. 

The president himself addressed the verdict for the first time later in the day, saying at the White House that the verdict reaffirmed the "American principle that no one is above the law." 

Julia Ingram

Julia Ingram is a data journalist for CBS News Confirmed. She covers misinformation, AI and social media using computational methods. Contact Julia at [email protected].

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