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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Donald Trump’s campaign said it had shattered its own fundraising record after his felony conviction on Thursday, even as US President Joe Biden said the rule of law in the country had been “reaffirmed” by the New York jury.

The Trump campaign on Friday morning said it had raised $34.8mn following the verdict, showing again the former US commander-in-chief’s ability to capitalise on his legal problems to bankroll his re-election bid.

The verdict in New York found Trump guilty on all 34 counts in his ‘hush money’ case, ushering in a new and unprecedented era in US presidential politics.

Trump hailed the verdict’s impact on his fundraising efforts at a Friday press conference in Trump Tower, his New York home.

“The good news is last night . . . they raised with small money donors, meaning like $21, $42, $53, $38, [for each donation], a record $39mn in about a 10-hour period,” he said, adding that he would be appealing against the “scam” verdict.

Within minutes of the guilty verdict on Thursday, the campaign acted to raise money, calling the ex-president a “POLITICAL PRISONER” on its website.

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

Biden criticised his predecessor and his allies for attacking the US justice system.

“The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed, Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself,” the president said, speaking from the White House on Friday afternoon.

“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous. it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged, just because they don’t like the verdict.”

The Trump campaign said the near-$35mn raised was almost double the sum garnered on its best-ever day on the WinRed donation platform. The site briefly crashed on Thursday.

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, as the Republican tries to narrow Biden’s cash advantage with five months to go before November’s election.

Republicans and donors immediately claimed fundraising victories after the verdict, which found Trump guilty of conspiring to buy the silence of porn actor Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election and cover his tracks in business records.

Jason Thielman, who runs the official Senate Republican campaign arm, said his group had “its largest online daily fundraising haul” of the 2024 election cycle. He wrote on X, “Outrage over the sham verdict against Trump has spurred average Americans into action!”

Last year, the ex-president used each of his four indictments to boost his fundraising effort, selling T-shirts bearing his mugshot, with contributions spiking each time. But Trump political groups have spent at least $80mn of donor money on his legal fees — and have roughly that much cash less in their election war chest than groups supporting Biden.

Trump still faces a civil fraud judgment that threatens his businesses in New York, and three criminal cases, including charges from the Department of Justice special counsel that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

While the campaign highlighted the small-dollar donations that poured in following Thursday’s verdict, several wealthy donors also announced their support after the case finished.

Venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, a partner in venture capital firm Sequoia, on Thursday said he had donated $300,000 to Trump’s campaign after the verdict, writing on X, “The timing isn’t a coincidence.”

New York Republican Lee Zeldin, a former US congressman, also claimed on X after the verdict that he had “secured” a $800,000 donation for Trump.

“Never experienced a massive ask that easy,” Zeldin wrote.

Google searches for DonaldJTrump.com and WinRed spiked more than 5,000 per cent, “trump campaign website” jumped at least 1,000 per cent and “biden campaign website” jumped more than 350 per cent.

Several megadonors have also swung behind Trump in recent days, with billionaires Stephen Schwarzman, Bill Ackman and Miriam Adelson all making moves to back the former president’s re-election bid.

Additional reporting by Sam Learner in New York

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The Atlantic Hurricane Season, which starts Saturday, is forecast to be an especially active year.

On Florida’s southwest coast, more than a year and a half after Hurricane Ian’s high winds and flooding caused more than $117 billion in damage, the fallout continues. Housing costs and insurance have spiked, prompting many to put their homes up for sale.

Concerns about hurricanes and climate change have raised questions about the long-term affordability of coastal communities like Cape Coral. The city of more than 200,000 residents near Fort Myers is on the coast, but there are no beaches. What Cape Coral does have is 400 miles of canals giving many homes direct boat access to the Gulf of Mexico.

Jerry Smith moved to Cape Coral from New Jersey three years ago during the COVID pandemic. Standing on his back patio, he looks out on his pool and tiki hut, along with his dock and boat. “If you’re living on the canal and you have access to the Gulf of Mexico, it was my vision of what I wanted the Florida lifestyle to be like,” he said.

Smith’s house received only minor damage in Hurricane Ian. But like just about everyone here, he’s seen his insurance rates go up. “The insurance industry has been tough on people here in Cape Coral,” he says. “There are significant raises in rates. And I think it’s one of the burdens that people have to really contemplate. Can they afford it?”

One thing most everyone agrees on in Cape Coral is that it could never be built today. In the late 1950’s, developers bought a 100-square-mile peninsula on Florida’s Gulf coast where they bulldozed mangroves, drained wetlands and dug hundreds of miles of canals. It was a classic Florida real estate venture, with lots sold on the installment plan and advertised as a “waterfront wonderland.” A marketing video at the time touted “the clean, clear air” and “the miles of blue water.”

For retirees and others relocating from the Northeast and Midwest, realtor Sam Yaffe says, Cape Coral had an advantage over places like Sarasota and Miami. “People started discovering us,” she says. “Our prices are cheaper.” In recent months though, sales have slowed in Cape Coral. Yaffe says, ”It is unusual. We do have several months’ worth of homes available.”

The main reason for the cooling of the once-hot Cape Coral home market is mortgage interest rates, now at a 20-year high. But there’s another important factor. Amir Neto, an economist at Florida Gulf Coast University says, “The cost of homeownership in southwest Florida has increased. And that has pushed some people away of those coastal areas, including Cape Coral.”

Spiking insurance rates are a big part of that. A study by a research group, First Street found that Cape Coral has more properties at risk of flooding than any other city in Florida. Jeremy Porter with First Street says to understand why, you just need a map. “Look at all that water,” he says. “For every home almost, there’s a canal. And as you live with water every day, if one of these storms come through, it is going to cause flooding. And the canals themselves are going to be a source of that.”

Following Hurricane Ian, FEMA is now reevaluating the risk of homes in several communities in southwest Florida, including Cape Coral. The federal agency recently announced it’s pulling the city’s long-standing discount on flood insurance. The decision, related to what FEMA said was improper rebuilding after Ian, would immediately raise flood insurance rates by 25%. Cape Coral’s mayor John Gunter called the FEMA action, nearly two years after Hurricane Ian “another catastrophic event.” At a city council meeting, he said, “This could cause other families not to even be able to live in their homes because of the cost of premiums.”

Cape Coral is appealing the FEMA decision. The city recently held hearings for more than 200 homeowners suspected of violating FEMA guidelines. One of those was Sherry Oakes. Her house had only minor damage after Ian and she was able to show that at the hearing. But she’s skeptical the city’s flood insurance discount will be reinstated. “It’s actually kind of scary,” she says. “Because there are just so many things right now that are going to really increase the cost of living here.”

Oakes says she and her husband Ray already pay $8,000 a year in insurance, costs that will go up if FEMA eliminates the flood discount. It’s one reason she thinks so many homes now are for sale.” I think a lot of people that are in the flood zone don’t want to pay these astronomical prices,” she says.

Cape Coral homeowner Sherry Oakes’s home was mistakenly tagged for violations by the city despite having only minor damage.

Greg Allen, NPR

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Greg Allen, NPR

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The cost of insurance is expected to keep rising. By 2050, because of more powerful hurricanes and the rising sea level, Jeremy Porter with First Street says nearly every single home in Cape Coral will face flood risk. Insurance, he says, is beginning to reflect the impacts of climate change. “We’ll hear from people, ‘The housing market’s been increasing. It’s been exploding the last few years. Climate change isn’t having any impact.’ Then they’ll pause and say, ‘But insurance is killing us.’”

Homeowner Jerry Smith agrees there’s a rising cost to living so close to the Gulf, but one he’s confident people will always be willing to pay. “The appeal,” he says. “The sun, the water. The marine life, the beach, not having to endure the winter. All those things make it worth the investment.”

Realtors say prices have dropped a little for houses on the market now in Cape Coral. But with interest rates high, more than half of the buyers now are paying cash.

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Senior figures in the African National Congress were on Friday debating the future of President Cyril Ramaphosa and discussing options for a coalition partner, as the depth of the loss suffered in South Africa’s general election sank in.

With more than half the votes counted following Wednesday’s poll, the ANC was below 42 per cent, several percentage points lower than it and most analysts had predicted and a tally that would deprive it of its governing majority.

The poor showing has complicated the task of finding a partner that would allow it to extend an unbroken rule of South Africa stretching back to 1994 following the end of apartheid.

It has also cast doubt over the future of Ramaphosa, who took over six years ago with a promise to reinvigorate the ANC but who instead presided over its worst-ever election performance.

Mavuso Msimang, a respected figure in the party, said there would now be questions about whether Ramaphosa could continue as leader. “If the vote remains close to 40 per cent then people will suggest he leaves. There’s a lot of talk about that,” he said.

Msimang said that, if Ramaphosa stayed, a coalition with the market-oriented Democratic Alliance was possible. The latest vote tally puts he DA in second place with 23.5 per cent.

But if Ramaphosa were pushed out, Msimang added, it would open the way for a deal with Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto we Sizwe party. The MK party was on just over 11 per cent despite being formed by Ramaphosa’s predecessor only six months ago.

“What business wants is a certainty which can only come with an ANC-DA alliance,” Msimang said, adding that some within the ANC would be viscerally opposed to a deal with the DA, which they see as both white and reactionary. 

With 56.3 per cent of the vote counted as of Friday morning, the ANC was on 41.9 per cent, well short of the tally in the mid-40s that had been expected and the 57.5 per cent it received in 2019. “The state of shock within the leadership of the ANC is amazing,” Msimang said, “but we had it coming.”

Given the scale of the ANC’s losses it would be difficult for it to form a working coalition without making an alliance either with the DA or the MK party, political analysts said. Most of the other smaller parties did not get more than 1 or 2 per cent of the vote.

Paul Mashatile, Ramaphosa’s deputy and a possible successor, is thought to be more likely to favour a deal with MK and possibly the radical Economic Freedom Fighters. The Marxist-leaning party led by the firebrand Julius Malema was in fourth place on 9.5 per cent.

Gwede Mantashe, chair of the ANC, told the FT that there had been no call within the ANC for Ramaphosa’s removal.

“I would resist this with everything I have. You don’t discus the removal of a president in the middle of an election,” he said. Rather, he said, the talk of Ramaphosa resigning was something that was “being discussed by our opponents”.

Asked if the ANC would consider this after the election, he said: “This is not going to be discussed.” Mantashe said it would be wrong to consider this a “bad result” when the ANC had still obtained over 3mn votes, and there were new parties emerging in South Africa’s political landscape.

Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said Ramaphosa needed to “move quickly” towards a deal with the DA or he risked being pushed out by his own party first. 

“If they get rid of him they’re going to do a deal with MK,” he said. “Once the ANC starts mobilising against Cyril he could be out very quickly.”

William Gumede, chair of the Johannesburg-based Democracy Works Foundation, said: “Ramaphosa’s head is on the block here. They’re going to look for a scapegoat and it’s most likely to be him. He will have to use all his negotiating skills to stay in power.”

Ralph Mathekga, an independent political analyst, said the ANC’s likely result would put any incumbent leader under pressure. “Ramaphosa can expect more pressure than most, given how vulnerable he has been. I can’t see him riding this one out,” he said.