Trump to host first major fundraiser the day of his arraignment

Former President Donald Trump is set to host the first fundraiser for his 2024 campaign on Tuesday evening, hours after he is expected to be arraigned in a Miami courtroom.

The fundraiser will take place at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club, for what advisers say will be the first in a string of gatherings for donors and bundlers that will take place across the country.

The campaign said it expects to raise $2 million at the event, helping to pad the former president’s coffers just weeks before the end of the second-quarter deadline and as Trump gears up for what could be a long and expensive nomination fight.

Earlier in the day, Trump is due to be in Miami, summoned over charges stemming from his handling and retention of classified documents he took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. The ex-president has been defiant since his indictment last week, pledging to stay in the race even if convicted.

Trump is expected to join the fundraiser just after making public remarks in which he will address the indictment, according to a person familiar with the plans. Preparations for the fundraiser were in the works long before it was known that he would be making a court appearance that same day.

Polls show Trump with large leads over his Republican primary rivals. Yet Trump is facing a well-funded opponent in Ron DeSantis, who has attracted the support of some of the party’s biggest donors. The Florida governor has raised more than $8 million following his late May campaign launch. A day after announcing his candidacy, DeSantis convened his top bundlers in Miami.

Trump has long relied on small dollar donors to propel him politically. The average contribution, those involved in his 2024 campaign say, is around $30. The former president drew a wave of online contributions in late March, after he was indicted in a separate case involving alleged hush money payments he made to a pornography actress, and his team has been sending out fundraising appeals to supporters trying to capitalize on conservative outrage over the charges in the classified documents case.

But aides say that, in contrast to his previous campaigns, the former president is also regularly working the phones to woo bundlers and other major contributors. Trump aides say they expect more than 300 bundlers to be on board the campaign by the end of June.

According to a copy of Tuesday’s invitation, supporters who bundle at least $100,000 will attend a private candlelight dinner. Those who give less will be rewarded in other ways, including with photo opportunities with Trump and with a “VIP reception with elected officials & special guests.”

The fundraiser will go towards a joint fundraising committee that will split its proceeds between the Trump campaign, which receives 90 percent of everything raised, and Trump’s Save America political action committee, which receives the remaining 10 percent. Trump has been using the PAC to pay for non-campaign-specific activities, such as paying his legal bills.