Donald Trump’s fundraising efforts are no match for President Joe Biden’s massive sold-out event on Thursday in New York City, Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov said during an episode of The Five on Fox News.
“You have this contrast of someone who is selling out events like this—which by the way has tickets that go for $200, it’s not all $500,000—and Donald Trump is doing ads, hocking $60 bibles, he is siphoning off donor money to pay for his legal fees. It’s a pretty stark contrast of what’s going on here,” Tarlov said during the network’s most-watched show on Thursday.
“And again,[…]that doesn’t mean that Joe Biden is definitely going to win this race, but you look at the money, and…,” she said, before being interrupted by Jesse Watters. “You arrested him, he does need to pay a lawyer,” he said. “We did not arrest him,” Tarlov responded.
Trump appears to have taken notice of the cash gap between his campaign and that of the incumbent, and that he needs to strengthen his fundraising efforts to match that of Biden. His 2024 presidential campaign is reportedly aiming to raise more than $33 million next week, in an effort to outstrip Biden’s money-bomb event on Thursday, which raised a total of more than $25 million, The Financial Times reported.
The president’s campaign recently reported having $155 million cash on hand and raised $53 million alone in February, with the incumbent saying during an interview with WNOV 860 earlier this month that they have 1.5 million donors, including 500,000 which are “brand new” and “small donors” giving under $200.
The BBC reported that Trump and his political action committees declared having just $74 million.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
On Thursday, Biden hosted a record-breaking event in New York City with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton which raised more funds than any other single political event, according to his team.
The event, hosted by comedian Mindy Kaling, featured a collection of guest stars including singers Lizzo, Queen Latifah and Cynthia Erivo and comedian Stephen Colbert.
The Late Show host moderated a conversation between Biden, Obama and Clinton, telling the crowd of 5,000: “Three presidents[…]and none of them are here to go to court.” A clear allusion to Trump’s legal troubles, as the former president currently faces 91 felony counts across four criminal cases and two civil lawsuits.
Newsweek contacted Trump’s 2024 campaign for comment by email early on Friday.
A person familiar with Trump’s planned event next week, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that the former president is inviting donors to his luxury resort in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, for a fundraiser on April 6.
The fundraiser will be hosted by New York hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson and co-chaired by Las Vegas-based businessman Robert Bigelow, casino mogul Steve Wynn and New York billionaire John Catsimatidis.
Guests are reportedly being asked to donate $814,600 per person as a “chairman” contributor or $250,000 per person.
“The response to our fundraising efforts has been overwhelming, and we’ve raised over $33mn so far,” said Paulson, as reported by the FT. “There is massive support amongst a broad spectrum of donors. The dinner is relatively small in nature, and we are almost at our cap.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.