Representatives with former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 campaign have confirmed reports that he raised $1.5 million in just three days after he announced on Truth Social he would be arrested on March 21 in Manhattan, according to FOX News.
Trump had taken to social media to announce that he would be arrested as he faces potential criminal charges in New York over reportedly paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The reported $130,000 payment was to prevent Daniels from going public before the 2016 presidential election with her allegations of a 2006 affair. The payments, reports indicate, were made by his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen.
He urged his supporters to protest with his post on Truth Social on March 18 that read, “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK.”
One response that came after the request was a small protest outside of Trump Towers in New York that same evening by those who are hopeful for his potential arrest and indictment.
He wasn’t arrested on Tuesday as he announced and it has prompted his critics to raise their eyebrows, as they’ve pointed out how they previously have seen this plot of him exploiting money from American citizens. They took to Twitter to call the former president a “grifter” after they found out he made a profit that went toward his presidential campaign.
“I guess the economy isn’t so bad after all,” said one comment.
“He can put the money on his commissary card.”
The former president’s lead defense attorney Susan Necheles couldn’t confirm the alleged arrest from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was actually coming, according to Business Insider.
“President Trump is basing this on press reports,” Necheles told Insider on last week. “This is a political prosecution, and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to the lawyers as they should.”
Critics believe that it was all a plot to raise more funds for his campaign. Business Insider reports that the $1.5 million is nearly double the daily average Trump’s campaign raised in the weeks before and after he announced, in November 2022, his second White House bid.
Reports indicate that Trump’s 2024 campaign raised $11.8 million in the six weeks before he announced he was running again in 2024. The campaign raised only $9.8 million in six weeks after his announcement.
He released the following statement on Truth Social the day before his alleged arrest:
“If you are doing poorly, as so many of you are, do not send anything. If you are doing well, which was made possible through the great policies of the Trump Administration, send your contribution.”
After he lost the 2020 presidential election, it was reported by The New York Times that he raised $170 million in just a matter of weeks on the claims that the election was stolen. It is reported that he also urged the Proud Boys and other supporters to storm Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.
He then told voters that the money would go into an “Official Election Defense Fund” to investigate the election. In June, the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot confirmed that no such fund existed. The Washington Post reported that most of the money went into Trump’s Political Action Committee.
