Trump was fund-raising off his conviction with small-dollar donors as well;

His campaign, which portrayed him as the victim of a politicized justice system, brought in nearly $53 million in the twenty-four hours after the verdict.

Several megadonors who had held back from endorsing Trump announced that they were now supporting him,
including
#Miriam #Adelson, the widow of the late casino mogul #Sheldon Adelson;
the Silicon Valley investor #David #Sacks, who said that the case against Trump was a sign of America turning into a “Banana Republic”;
and the venture capitalist #Shaun #Maguire, who, less than an hour after the verdict, posted on X that he was donating $300,000 to Trump, calling the prosecution a “radicalizing experience.”

A day later, #Timothy #Mellon, the banking-family scion, wrote a $50-million check to the Make America Great Again super pac.

#Ed #Rogers, a longtime G.O.P. lobbyist, had never publicly endorsed Trump or raised money for his campaigns.

On May 31st, the day after Trump’s conviction, he sent his first contribution to the ex-President. “There was no case to make that that was not targeted prosecution,” he told me.

He predicted that other Republicans who, like him, had been “allergic” to Trump would now get on board as well.

“I tell people I am a Bill Barr, Chris Sununu, Nikki Haley Republican,” he said, listing the names of Republican officials who had criticized Trump in blistering terms only to support him again in 2024;

Haley, despite having called Trump “unhinged” and a threat to the Republic, had announced the week before his conviction that she would vote for him.

“The choices are Biden or Trump, and I’m at peace with that,” Rogers said in June.
“I wish it was a different equation, but it’s not.”

️Many donors I spoke with at the time described
Trump’s trial as an impetus,
but they tended to cite a litany of other reasons, too, including questions about
Biden’s age and fitness to serve another term, concerns about his
economic policies, and gripes about some of his
appointees, such as the head of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, who has launched high-profile antitrust investigations.

Trump, despite his populist rhetoric, deficit spending, and support for market-distorting tariffs,
has sold himself as a pro-business candidate.

He has promised extensive deregulation,
nearly unfettered drilling for oil and gas,
and tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals.

“A lot of the donors have just come to the conclusion that, when you add it all up,
the risks with Trump are behavioral
—personal behavior and what he says
—versus the policies,” the attendee at the Fifth Avenue fund-raiser told me.

It was a “rationalization” adopted by “even those who were initially very put off, very alienated, by his behavior at the end of his Presidency.”

By late May, Trump’s campaign had more money in the bank than Biden’s.

The incumbent President’s disastrous performance in a June 27th debate against Trump only accelerated the trend.

“After the debate, Biden looks like a loser,
so these people who were never going to give to Biden,
they’re now even more attracted to the idea of giving to former President Trump,”
the attendee at Fanjul’s dinner said.

“Because he looks like a winner.”

The following month, as Democratic donors and elected officials frantically pressured Biden to drop out of the race,
Trump and the Republicans again outraised the Democrats.

“The Zeitgeist in the business world is that Trump is going to be President again,”
a billionaire C.E.O. who is not a Trump supporter told me at the time.

“Therefore, why fall on your sword on principle?”

He added, “Businesspeople
—their main focus in life is to make money,
and you make money by backing winners. . . .

They’ve concluded, O.K., he’s going to be President,
let’s hold our nose and do what we have to do.”