Donald Trump met with a bunch of potential donors on Sunday, amongst them Elon Musk, The New York Occasions reported.
The group gathered at Palm Seaside, Florida, per the publication; it’s unclear if the billionaire has determined to donate to the GOP frontrunner’s marketing campaign.
In response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is the third richest man on the planet with a web price of $197.7 billion. Since 2009, the SpaceX CEO has donated lower than $1 million within the political realm, per the Federal Election Fee. Musk beforehand claimed that earlier than 2022, he by no means voted for a Republican, however has since espoused Republican politics, particularly by his platform X (previously Twitter). In 2022, the billionaire tweeted he would again Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (who has since dropped out of the Republican major) if he ran for president in 2024.
Trump’s PACs spent $50 million on the previous president’s authorized protection in 2023.
As a result of the a number of civil and prison circumstances leveled towards Trump within the final two years, his authorized payments have skyrocketed. The Occasions beforehand reported that Trump’s PACs spent $50 million on the previous president’s authorized protection in 2023. In August of final yr, Save America discovered that it had burned by nearly all of its cash-on-hand on Trump and his associates’ authorized defenses.
The Occasions reported on the time that Save America had requested a $60 million refund from one other Trump-affiliated group to maintain itself afloat.
In February, a $454 million penalty was levied towards Trump in his New York civil fraud case. After being denied a $100 million bond, his attorneys stated within the submitting that he would probably need to promote properties to shore up the money for the total bond quantity except an emergency keep is granted. The civil penalty is separate from the $83.3 million sum ordered within the defamation case from author E. Jean Carroll, on high of the 4 simultaneous prison circumstances at present underway towards the previous president.
Trump’s marketing campaign warfare chest is way smaller than Biden’s, placing the previous president at a drawback in a probable normal election rematch between the 2 males. Trump has to this point struggled to draw giant donors for his 2024 bid, with a lot of them sitting on the sidelines or supporting Nikki Haley.
President Joe Biden continues to beat Trump in garnering money — Biden’s marketing campaign ended January with almost $56 million in comparison with Trump, whose marketing campaign had about $30 million out there.