Donald Trump’s big empty

| 8:00 pm EDT May 31, 2024
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Donald Trump is now claiming that he’s fundraised $39 million since he was convicted yesterday. Much of the media is parroting this number without questioning it. But it really doesn’t mean anything, for three reasons.

First, even if this number is accurate, it’s merely a blip. It doesn’t put Trump anywhere near the total that President Joe Biden has amassed for his 2024 campaign. Biden has been massively out-fundraising Trump so far. A one-day blip isn’t going to substantially impact that.

Second, Trump still appears to be using most of this “campaign” fundraising to pay his legal bills and such. So even if he has raised $39 million since yesterday, that probably doesn’t make him a single dollar more competitive in this election.

Third, Donald Trump is nearly always wildly exaggerating or outright lying. So why would anyone take his word for it when he claims to have raised a certain amount? Trump’s people know that his actual fundraising totals won’t be publicly disclosed until well after the end of the quarter, by which time no one will go back and fact check the totals he’s currently touting. So they can easily feed Trump whatever number they want and have him go out and say it. None of it makes it true.