Following former President Trump’s conviction on 34 counts, he will travel to California next week to raise money for his campaign at expensive events in San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. They should raise millions.
“A mock trial designed for one purpose: to call Donald Trump a “criminal”” David Sacks, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, a host of the Bay Area fundraiser reportedly held at his Pacific Heights resort, wrote on the social media platform X shortly after the verdict was announced Thursday. “Look at the Democrats and the (mainstream media) repeating that word over and over again. »
The California events were planned before the verdict, but the Trump campaign said Friday morning that it had received $34.8 million since the former president’s conviction. He touted the funding increase, as yet unofficial and unverified, during his remarks Friday.
Trump was convicted by a New York jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records of approximately $130,000 in payments made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, who alleges he had sex at Lake Tahoe at a golf tournament, in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump, who denies having sex, is the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced July 11, days before he is officially nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He is expected to appeal his conviction, and Republican Party leaders have supported him, arguing without evidence that the New York trial was rigged and a weaponization of the justice system by Democrats.
The former president will be in California for at least three days next week to raise money to fuel Trump’s effort to unseat his Democratic rival, President Biden, in November.
On Thursday, a fundraiser will be hosted by Sacks, a former PayPal executive; his wife, Jacqueline Sacks; and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive. Entry cost: up to $300,000 per person and $500,000 per couple.
The next day, Trump will fundraise in Beverly Hills, with attendees paying up to $250,000 per person, according to an invitation obtained by The Times.
Next Saturday, he will headline a fundraiser in Newport Beach, to which donors will be asked to contribute up to $100,000, and with billionaire tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey among the hosts. John Word, co-founder of a health insurance company, and his wife, Kimberly, would host the event at their home overlooking Newport Harbor.
These events were already expected to raise significant sums of money. But the former president’s fundraising efforts have increased since the verdict was handed down. The online fundraising system for Republican campaign donations crashed Thursday, The New York Times reported.
The Trump campaign attributed the technological glitch to an influx of donations to the former president’s campaign after the verdict was announced.
“Just minutes after the verdict, the digital fundraising system registered a record number of supporters,” said Brian Hughes, senior campaign advisor. “The campaign is grateful for this massive outpouring of support because it shows that Americans viewed this sham trial as political interference in the election that Biden and the Democrats always wanted. »
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a fundraising appeal for the Biden campaign Friday morning, highlighting the amount of money Trump raised in less than 24 hours after the verdict was announced.
“This is an absolutely critical time for everyone who wants to re-elect Joe Biden and defeat Donald Trump to stand with us,” he wrote. “The president needs you. Especially today.
Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University, said Trump campaign coffers could benefit from the verdict given the country’s polarization.
“By definition, someone who writes him a check is already a true believer. And we’ve already seen over the weeks of the trial that the Trump campaign has figured out how to make this work to its fundraising advantage,” Schnur said. “A few tricky donors may drop out, but his staunch supporters could end up writing even bigger checks.” »
Indeed, shortly after the verdict, Shaun Maguire, a partner at a Menlo Park venture capital firm that funds technology companies, announced that he had donated $300,000 to the Trump campaign.
“The timing is not a coincidence,” Maguire wrote on X. He is a partner at Sequoia Capital and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump.
Yet even though Trump received support from some notable tech leaders during his successful 2016 campaign, such as billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley largely favors Democrats.
During this election cycle, Biden and groups supporting his campaign raised $17.1 million from the communications and electronics industry, which includes technology companies, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data conducted by OpenSecrets. Trump raised $1.7 million. (The analysis is for FEC data released April 22 by the nonpartisan group, which tracks election finances.)
The contrasting numbers reflect the president’s fundraising advantage nationally and in California. Biden’s campaign reported $194.8 million in revenue through April 30, compared to Trump’s $124.2 million, according to fundraising information filed with the FEC.
Both candidates raised more in California than any other state because the state’s donors fund political candidates on both sides of the aisle, despite its penchant for cobalt. Biden raised $21 million from Californians through March 31, while Trump raised $11.1 million, according to the FEC.
The Biden campaign has accused Trump of offering policies favorable to those who donate large sums to his campaign.
“This week, Donald Trump will travel across the country to sell America to his special interest donors, big oil and gas companies, or even Elon Musk,” said Ammar Moussa, the campaign’s rapid response director. . “Trump’s billionaire cronies know the drill: If they cut his campaign checks, he will give tax breaks to the super rich and corporations, while he cuts Social Security and Medicare and raises taxes middle class.”
Democrats are also returning to California to raise more money for their campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to lead a fundraiser in San Diego County Friday afternoon; her husband, Doug Emhoff, is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser this evening in Los Angeles, according to the White House.
The next big fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Democratic ticket will be June 15, when Biden appears with former President Obama at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel will moderate a conversation between the men; actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts are also expected to attend the event.
Although the Biden campaign has not disclosed how much money is expected to be raised at the rally, Democrats have historically raised huge sums at such events in Los Angeles. Donors at a December event in Holmby Hills were invited to contribute up to $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that supports the president’s re-election campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties.
Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.
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