Trump campaign donations surge amid criminal indictments

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 fundraising operation raked in more than $35 million in the second quarter, nearly doubling what it raised in the previous reporting period, three campaign officials told CNBC on Wednesday.

The latest haul, raised by Trump’s joint committee during the three-month period spanning April through June, came as the former president pleaded not guilty in two separate criminal cases.

The president’s legal strife may have boosted his fundraising efforts. The Trump campaign reported massive surges in donations in the wake of both his first indictment in late March in New York and the federal indictment returned in June.

The average donation to the Trump campaign was $34, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to confirm the figures ahead of a July 15 filing deadline.

The joint fundraising committee comprises Trump’s campaign and his leadership PAC, Save America. In the first three months of the year, the operation took in $18.8 million, with the campaign receiving $14.4 million of that sum.

It was unclear how much of the second-quarter bundle was raised by Trump’s campaign and how much was taken in by Save America.

Trump has put the charges against him front and center in his campaign messaging and fundraising appeals. The former president regularly attacks the prosecutors pursuing his cases in Manhattan criminal court and federal court in Miami.

In a Truth Social post late Wednesday, Trump tore into special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the criminal probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents that yielded federal charges, saying he “looks like a crackhead.”

The fundraising haul provides more evidence that Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary field. His top competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has so far failed to make a meaningful dent in national polls of the GOP field.

Politico reported on Trump’s second quarter fundraising numbers earlier Wednesday.