According to several media sites, former president Donald Trump raised $1.5 million in the three days following his projection on Truth Social that he would be detained on Tuesday.
According to Fox News, Trump’s 2024 campaign acknowledged the amount on Wednesday. According to reports, the funds came from local donations.
The same sum was raised over that time period, according to The Washington Post, which cited an unnamed individual with knowledge of the situation.
The resulting average of $500,000 per day is about twice as much as the average daily income from the weeks prior to and following his announcement of his candidacy for president in November.
The Trump campaign brought in $11.8 million in the six weeks before the announcement, averaging out at $280,000 a day. And in the six weeks after Trump announced his run, his campaign raised $9.5 million, or $226,000 a day.
The former president’s funding boost came after he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be arrested Tuesday over the hush-money investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. It’s unclear what basis he had for the claim — his lead defense attorney told Insider on Saturday that the defense team hadn’t heard an arrest date from the Manhattan DA — but Tuesday came and went with no arrest.
Trump urged supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” in his Truth Social post, which came amid rising indicators that he might soon be indicted by a New York grand jury over the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.
As the anticipation of an indictment grew, Trump’s campaign capitalized by highlighting it in almost every fundraising message. The daily messages seen by Insider tell recipients that the “justice system has utterly COLLAPSED” and that they can be a “FOUNDING DEFENDER” by giving money to the former president.
One such email asked supporters to sign a petition opposing a Trump arrest and afterward requested donations to his campaign.
The former president’s fundraising efforts appeared on Truth Social as well.
“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,” he wrote Monday. He reposted the same message Wednesday, making no mention of his own false arrest prediction.
Trump has raised millions while casting himself as a victim of political persecution. In the weeks after he lost the 2020 election, he raised a reported $170 million off lies that the White House was stolen from him.
He also told voters that their money would go to an “Official Election Defense Fund” for investigating the election, but the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot confirmed in June that no such fund ever existed. Most of the money instead went to Trump’s PAC, per the Post.
Representatives for Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.