Donald J. Trump’s campaign announced on Friday evening that he had raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after his felony conviction, shattering online records for Republicans and raking in enough cash to help him close what has been a substantial financial gap with President Biden.
It is hard to put the enormity of the sum into proper perspective, but it would nearly match, in a single day, the $58 million that Mr. Trump’s main fund-raising arm raised online in the last six months of 2023, according to federal records.
The campaign first said on Friday morning it had collected nearly $35 million in the hours after the verdict. By Friday evening, the campaign had revised the figure up to $52.8 million in the 24-hour period following Mr. Trump’s conviction.
“This momentum is just getting started,” Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, two of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, said in a joint statement.
The figures will not be verifiable until the campaign committees and WinRed, the online processing platform for Republicans, make their filings with the Federal Election Commission in the coming months.
In addition, the campaign said on Friday morning that nearly 30 percent of the donors who gave online were new to WinRed, giving the former president an invaluable infusion of new people to tap for contributions as his campaign marches to November.
The one-day haul was significantly more than the $4 million Mr. Trump raised when his mug shot was released in 2023, after his booking in Atlanta for his indictment there.
Cash has so far been one of Mr. Biden’s advantages in the race. His main campaign committee entered May with $84 million, compared with $49 million for Mr. Trump.
The 24-hour fund-raising total could erase that edge entirely, though Mr. Biden has said his campaign has another $100 million spread across accounts that he shared with the Democratic Party. Mr. Trump’s campaign has not disclosed its total cash on hand with party accounts.
The Biden campaign has leveraged its cash to advertise in key battleground states since Mr. Trump emerged as the Republican nominee and as Mr. Trump has been absent from the airwaves.
The post-verdict total was far greater than the $26 million that the Biden campaign had announced four years ago in the 24 hours after he had named Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential pick.
In April, Mr. Trump’s operation, working in concert with the Republican National Committee, announced that it had raised $76.2 million, beating for the first time what Mr. Biden’s shared operations with the Democratic National Committee brought in — $51 million.
The conviction appeared to be driving Democratic donations, as well, though to a much lesser extent.
ActBlue, which processes online contributions for Democrats, registered three of its four biggest hours of donations in all of 2024 on Thursday evening in the wake of the conviction, topping out near $1.3 million in a single hour, according to its online ticker.
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