Trump’s guilty verdict is turning into a lottery for his campaign finance

A day after former US President Donald Trump was handed over the historic guilty verdict in the infamous hush money case, his campaign said that it had shattered its own fundraising record. On Thursday, the business mogul turned politician created history for all the wrong reasons after a 12-member jury found him guilty of falsifying his business records.

According to the Financial Times, Trump’s campaign raised almost twice as much money than on any previous day. The money was raised through an online donor platform.

The campaign said on Friday morning that it had raised $34.8mn following the verdict. It is pertinent to note that with this verdict, Trump became the first ex-president ever to be convicted of a felony. He was found guilty on all 34 counts and was accused of hiding the hush money given to adult film star Stormy Daniels from his business records.

The campaign site briefly crashed 

Trump’s campaign said that the amount was nearly double the sum garnered on its best-ever day on the WinRed donation platform. With the massive inflow of donations, the site briefly crashed as well.

“President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November fifth is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict,” said Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles in a statement.

Shortly after the verdict started making headlines, Trump’s campaign moved within minutes to start a donation drive and went on to refer to Trump as a “political prisoner”.

“I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial,” wrote Trump on the campaign page. “I DID NOTHING WRONG!”

Even before the verdict, Trump’s campaign has stepped up its fundraising efforts, including holding events with oil barons in Texas and a planned June trip to Silicon Valley.

Jason Thielman, who runs the official Senate Republican campaign also noted the spike in the campaign funds. “Outrage over the sham verdict against Trump has spurred average Americans into action!” Thielman wrote on X, formally known as Twitter.

“The NRSC just had its largest online daily fundraising haul of the cycle. The people are energized and determined to take back the White House and Senate!” he added.

Not only this, Google searches for DonaldJTrump.com and WinRed spiked over 5,000 per cent, the “Trump campaign website” jumped over 1,000 per cent and the “Biden campaign website” saw an increase of over 350 per cent, Financial Times reported.

Billionaires like Stephen Schwarzman, Bill Ackman and Miriam Adelson have expressed their intentions to support the former president in the upcoming elections.

With inputs from agencies.