The war for donations rages on. At the end of March, President Joe Biden, candidate for re-election, raised $25 million – a “record” according to his campaign team – during a large reception in New York, in the presence of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. His rival Donald Trump therefore had only one objective: to surpass the amount collected by the Democrat. This has been done since Saturday April 6.
Donald Trump raised $50.5 million during a gigantic fundraising evening in Palm Beach (Florida), not far from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious residence. An amount that makes the amount collected by Joe Biden “desperate”, in comparison, quipped his campaign team. “The evening was incredible before it even started, because people wanted to contribute to a cause, to make America great again. And that’s what happened,” said the former president .
The event was organized by billionaire John Paulson, one of the few financiers to have profited from the 2008-2009 financial crisis thanks to his bets on the collapse of the real estate market. It made it possible, according to him, “to raise the highest amount in one go in the history” of politics. Guests included businessman Robert Bigelow, who made his fortune in the hotel business before running an aerospace research company, and John Catsimatidis, owner of a major grocery store chain. Both men are known to be major donors to the Republican Party.
“Don the Broke”
Some former rivals of Donald Trump in the Republican primaries were also on the list: Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Doug Burgum… These men have since completely embraced the septuagenarian’s candidacy and hope to find a place in a hypothetical Trump 2.0 administration. According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump’s seat at the table will be billed… $814,600. Joe Biden, who likes to portray himself as a hero of the middle class, was quick to criticize the event organized by his Republican opponent in a post on social networks on Saturday.
“Donald Trump is organizing a fundraiser with a group of billionaires from the world of finance, who want to slash Social Security and Medicare while offering themselves tax cuts,” he said. he accuses. The Democrat currently has better campaign coffers than Donald Trump, criminally charged four times, who spends part of the money collected from his supporters on legal fees. His team relishes this financial advantage, even calling out “broke Don” in a recent email about the billionaire, himself a big fan of cruel nicknames.
In American electoral life, money, far from being a taboo, is a source of pride for the side that amasses the most. It is also an essential windfall: 2024 promises to be the most expensive electoral cycle in the country’s history. The two candidates have been engaged in this war for millions for months, regularly sharing laudatory press releases on the state of their finances. These crazy sums are used to finance candidates’ travel, to pay their teams, to commission surveys or, and perhaps above all, to pay for television advertisements.