Former President Donald Trump’s campaign says it has raised as much as $34.8 million in small donations after he was convicted of 34 crimes in Manhattan on Thursday.
The campaign said Thursday’s haul was “the largest day on record” for Trump’s vaunted small-dollar fundraising operation on the WinRed platform, nearly doubling the previous record. The WinRed website temporarily crashed due to overwhelming traffic.
In a statement Friday morning, senior campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said that within minutes of the ruling, “our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online due to the volume of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million from small dollar donors .”
“Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donors were brand new donors to the WinRed platform,” the statement added.
Trump was found guilty in New York state court of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star to conceal an alleged affair. He was found to have done this to conceal another crime, such as a campaign finance law violation or a tax law violation, making the charges felonies. He will be sentenced on July 11 and faces probation, community service or a short prison sentence.
An aggressive Trump campaign attempt to capitalize on the conviction
Trump’s campaign texted supporters at least five times asking them to donate and sharing a link to a WinRed page that called Trump a “political prisoner,” framed his conviction as a “witch hunt” and attached a copy of his mugshot from an unrelated case in Atlanta, Georgia. The page asked 10 million people to donate.
Additionally, dozens of Trump allies shared the same link to the WinRed page on X, formerly known as Twitter. Among them are Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Marco Rubio of Florida, JD Vance of Ohio, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Byron Donalds of Florida and Steve Scalise of Louisiana also shared.
More: ‘Speechless’: Swing State Voters React to Donald Trump’s Guilty Verdict
Trump’s campaign wrote on Truth Social less than an hour after the verdict was announced: “So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump’s campaign that the WinRed pages went offline. “We are working to get the website back online as soon as possible.”
USA TODAY’s request to WinRed was not immediately returned.
Small-dollar donations can often be a measure of grassroots enthusiasm for a candidate. In Trump’s case, they have been a barometer for how the Republican base is responding to his legal troubles.
Trump has used each of his four criminal charges to raise money, but his first conviction gave his fundraising a bigger boost.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump’s campaign announces $34.8 million in donations after ruling
