Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced on Saturday evening that a Trump fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, has set a new single-fundraiser record for a presidential campaign by pulling in more than $50 million in one night.
The new record by Trump comes just weeks after Democrat President Joe Biden set a record when he appeared in New York City alongside former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to pull in a then-record $26 million.
Trump’s Saturday evening fundraiser nearly doubled that and represents a massive shift among donor class Republicans coming home to Trump as the former president last month crossed the threshold of the requisite number of delegates needed to become the presumptive GOP nominee for president in a third straight election.
“Tonight will be an incredible night for President Trump and the Republican Party, raising an astounding $50.5 million,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.:
Meanwhile, after locking up the nomination in one of the fastest primaries in modern political history, Donald J. Trump is winning poll after poll and proving that the enthusiasm is on his side. It’s clearer than ever that we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President Trump to victory on November 5.
Newly installed RNC chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump—Trump’s daughter-in-law—also said that the fundraiser represents that the GOP is unified behind Trump and ready for battle with Biden.
“The success of tonight’s event is proving what we already know: Americans are fed up with Biden’s record of failure, from the open southern border and sky-high inflation to the migrant crime crisis that has made everyone less safe,” Whatley and Lara Trump said. “The Republican Party is united behind the effort to elect President Donald J. Trump, and Americans are lining up to join our movement and retire Crooked Joe Biden once and for all.”
🚨DONALD TRUMP AND ALIGNED GROUPS SMASH RECORDS AT PALM BEACH DINNER, RAISE $50.5 MILLIONhttps://t.co/UDw8rbkmho pic.twitter.com/FqkE8Ka8q2
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) April 6, 2024
Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, who has been discussed as a possible candidate for Secretary of the Treasury should Trump win again in November, hosted the fundraiser at his mansion in Palm Beach. Billed the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” several donors topped out at $824,600—the max donation at this event—for a “Chairman level” treatment where Trump would sit with them at dinner.
Also in attendance at the fundraiser were former first lady Melania Trump and three of Trump’s previous intra-party 2024 rivals: businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
A copy of the fundraising invitation that the New York Post published shows a who’s who list of mega GOP donors including Robert Bigelow, Harold Hamm, Steve Wynn, Robert Mercer, Todd Ricketts, Scott Bessent, John Catsimatidis, former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, and many more.
This record-setting fundraiser on Saturday evening for Trump comes after the Trump campaign and RNC announced earlier this week that in March they raised $65.6 million already and had $93.1 million in cash on hand.
In contrast, the Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced that to end March they had raised $90 million together and had $192 million in cash on hand. Trump’s Saturday evening fundraiser will cut significantly into that Biden advantage and, as the former president continues to raise more—and big GOP donors come around to him now that the primary is over—that edge for Biden is likely to wane.
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