Former United States President Donald Trump has monetized the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate and has successfully raked in millions of dollars from his supporters.
The Republican businessman previously bombarded his loyal followers with more than 100 emails asking for money based on the raid. Contributions to the former president's political action committee topped $1 million on at least two days after the Aug. 8 search of his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
Trump Monetizes FBI Mar-a-Lago Raid
The daily hauls jumped from a level of $200,000 to $300,000 that had been typical in recent months, said two people familiar with the figures. The donations stayed unusually high for several more days afterward and are still above average.
The sources said that there were more contributors than usual and noted that the average donation has increased. The influx comes at a crucial time for Trump as he continues to tease a potential 2024 presidential run amid dwindling returns on his online fundraising solicitations earlier this year, as per the Washington Post.
Trump's PAC brought in $36 million in the first half of the year, which is below the $50 million in a six-month period for the first time since he left office, based on Federal Election Commission data. The donations also provide concrete signs that Trump is reaping some political benefits from the revelation that he is under investigation by the Justice Department.
The former president and his supporters have repeatedly argued in emails, social media posts, and right-wing media articles that the FBI search warrant would backfire on President Joe Biden. They argued that it would only rally Republicans around Trump.
According to the New York Post, the donations followed Trump making an email that announced: "Breaking: The FBI Raided President Trump's Home: Mar-a-Lago" in all caps. The email began by saying that the situation placed the nation in dark times.
Urging His Supporters To Donate
Trump continued in his email that nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before. He argued that it was important that the people know it was not just his home that was violated, but the home of every patriotic American that he has been fighting for for a long time.
The former president's message added that he "stood up to the Radical Left's corruption" but claimed that his opponents are still trying to thwart him following his administration's successes. Trump said that with the help of his supporters, he will continue to fight for the "Great American People."
The situation comes as the FBI is still sifting through the seized documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The agency's filter team, a group of agents independent of the overall investigation, is tasked with separating out documents that are covered by attorney-client privilege and material deemed not relevant to the probe.
Records that are considered relevant are turned over to the investigating agents while those that are not were returned to Trump. Officials said that it was the filter team that determined that the former president's passports, which he claimed agents "stole" during the search, were considered not relevant and returned to him, NBC News reported.
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