Early Saturday morning, Donald Trump jolted the political world a bit by declaring, by way of his social media platform, that he’d be “arrested“ on Tuesday. It wasn’t at all clear why in the world the former president made such a prediction and it was apparently based on his impressions of media accounts.
We now know, of course, that the Republican’s projection wasn’t true. If Fox News’ new report is accurate, his prediction was, however, quite lucrative.
Former President Donald Trump is quickly capitalizing — and cashing in — on his escalating legal predicaments. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign confirmed to Fox News that they hauled in $1.5 million in grassroots fundraising in the three days following the former president’s warning on Saturday that he may face imminent indictment and potential arrest in connection with looming criminal charges from a district attorney in New York City.
None of these details have been independently confirmed, though The Washington Post had a related report, which wasn’t about fundraising, but which noted in passing that Team Trump raised “over $1.5 million since Saturday, a person familiar with the matter said.”
To put these numbers in context, in the six weeks following his 2024 campaign kickoff event, Trump raised roughly $9.5 million, for an average of roughly $224,000 per day. Since Saturday morning, if today’s reporting is accurate, the Republican has raised roughly $500,000 per day.
In other words, saying he’d be arrested gave the former president a significant boost — which might help explain why Trump made the false prediction in the first place.
In theory, it might seem impossible for a politician to turn the threat of indictment into a grift. In practice, the relationship between Trump and his followers is not normal.
Indeed, Trump is the first modern American politician to turn an election defeat into a lucrative opportunity.
Revisiting our earlier coverage, it was in December 2020 when…
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