Donald Trump’s big empty
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.
