California
Trump heads to California for billionaire fundraisers days after post-verdict donation windfall
Donald Trump says he will appeal his historic felony conviction
Donald Trump said Friday he will appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first person to serve as president to be convicted of a crime.
Flush with a torrent of small campaign donations following Thursday’s 34-count guilty verdict, former President Donald Trump is heading westward in a bid to continue the fundraising spree, to the land of sunshine, palm trees and tech billionaires.
A multiday trip to California this week is expected to rake in millions as he hopscotches from events in San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, where attendance costs as much as $300,000 per person.
California is home to many mega-donors supporting the presumptive Republican nominee Trump and President Joe Biden’s campaigns, making it both an inevitable stop for candidates during election years and an arena in the fight for billionaire backing. Though the fundraisers were announced before the verdict, efforts by the GOP to bridge the gap between Trump’s and Biden’s coffers will now broadcast a new message: Trump as “political prisoner.”
The Trump National Committee’s official fundraising page features the term in highlighted, bold text.
“I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG!,” the fundraising website, hosted by WinRed, quotes Trump. “YOUR SUPPORT IS THE ONLY THING STANDING BETWEEN US AND TOTAL TYRANNY!”
It’s the first fundraising blitz in the state this year for Trump, kicking off less than a week after a Manhattan jury convicted the former president of falsifying business records in an attempt to hide hush money payments to an adult film star.
Former Paypal executive David Sacks and his wife, Jacqueline Sacks, are co-hosting a Thursday fundraiser with former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya in San Francisco. Tickets range from $5,000 to $300,000 per person and $500,000 for couples. David Sacks and Palihapitiya, co-hosts of the “All-In” podcast, have hosted political fundraisers in the past, including for Trump.
A similar reception and dinner event is scheduled the following day in Beverley Hills, ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 to attend. Saturday, the former president will head to Newport Beach, where attendees will shell out up to $100,000. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of a health insurance company John Word, and his wife, Kimberly, are hosting the event.
Trump says he raised nearly $53 million a day after his conviction
But Trump and the GOP aren’t the only ones pointing to Trump’s criminal charges in attempts to drum up support — or appeal to owners of some of the Golden State’s heaviest pocketbooks.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political action committee sent an email Friday in a bid for donations, calling the verdict’s funding haul a “dangerous moment for Joe Biden,” the Sacramento Bee reported.
“I don’t need to tell you about Donald Trump’s conviction yesterday,” the governor said in the email. “But here is what you may not know: after the jury announced its verdict, Donald Trump raised $35 million from supporters who want to see him re-elected. All in less than 24 hours. And this on the heels of out-raising Joe Biden last month, as well.”
California Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, has also been making entreaties to the tech world recently, hosting a retreat in Napa Valley, bringing together Democratic party leaders with billionaire leaders in venture capital and technology.
Kathryn Palmer is an elections fellow for USA TODAY. Reach her at kapalmer@gannett.com and follow her on X @KathrynPlmr.