Trump campaign reports raising greater than $7 million after Georgia booking

For former President Donald Trump, an image is price… greater than $7 million.

Trump’s campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked on the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election within the state and have become the primary former president in U.S. history to ever have a mug shot taken.

Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day so far.

The record haul underscores how Trump’s legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his campaign, at the same time as his political operation has spent tens of tens of millions on his defense. The mounting legal charges have also didn’t dent Trump’s standing within the Republican presidential primary, with the previous president now routinely beating his rivals by 30 to 50 points in polls.

While Trump described his appearance Thursday as a “terrible experience” and said posing for the historic mug shot was “not a snug feeling,” his campaign immediately seized on its fundraising power.

Before he had even flown home to Recent Jersey, his campaign was using it in fundraising pitches to supporters. Trump amplified that message each on his Truth Social site and by returning to X, the positioning formerly generally known as Twitter, for the primary time in two-and-a-half years to share the image and direct supporters to a fundraising page.

Inside hours, the campaign had also released a latest line of merchandise featuring the image that began with t-shirts and now includes beer Koozies, bumper stickers, a signed poster, bumper stickers and mug shot mugs.

Cheung said that contributions from those that had purchased merchandise or donated without prompting skyrocketed, especially after Trump’s tweet.

The brand new contributions, he said, had helped push the campaign’s fundraising haul during the last three weeks to shut to $20 million. Trump in early August was indicted in Washington on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election within the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

At the identical time, Trump’s political operation has been burning through tens of tens of millions of dollars on lawyers as he battles charges in 4 separate jurisdictions. Recent campaign finance filing showed that, while Trump raised over $53 million through the first half of 2023 — a period through which his first two criminal indictments were become a rallying cry that sent his fundraising soaring — his political committees have paid out at the very least $59.2 million to greater than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021.