Donald Trump is wasting no time in getting back on the campaign trail now that the verdict is in and his historic criminal trial in New York City is over.
The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee headlined a campaign fundraiser just a couple of hours after being convicted. On Saturday he’ll attend a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) match in Newark, New Jersey, Fox News confirmed. And on Sunday he’ll sit for a ‘Fox and Friends’ interview.
‘We’ll be fighting hard,’ Trump told Fox News’ Brooke Singman in an interview soon after he was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in his case, the first in which a former or current president stood trial.
Trump emphasized that he was excited to get back on the campaign trail.
On Friday, as he addressed reporters from the atrium of his Trump Tower in New York City, where he launched his first White House bid nine years ago, the former president vowed that ‘we’re going to fight.’.
For six weeks, Trump had been confined to the courtroom in Lower Manhattan, which prevented him from campaigning across the country other than on weekends and Wednesdays, when there was no trial.
But Trump’s campaign touted that even during the duration of the trial, the candidate was able to generate ‘billions of dollars’ in media coverage as well as host rallies and fundraisers.
The former president’s tenure in court also didn’t seem to put a dent in the slight edge he enjoys in the polls over President Biden in the key battleground states that will likely decide the outcome of their rematch.
And the former president’s top pollsters put out a memo on the eve of the verdict arguing that a conviction would not have any electoral consequences.
‘We are already back to the mission,’ the Trump campaign told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening. ‘President Trump won’t let this sham stop the movement of this campaign to save the nation.’
Longtime Republican strategist David Carney, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns who is now steering a pro-Trump super PAC, told Fox News that ‘the show trial is over and Trump is unleashed to campaign at will again. With the miscarriage of justice out in the open, he will have the wind to his back.’
Trump enjoyed an initial burst of fundraising courtesy of his guilty verdicts.
The former president’s campaign announced on Friday morning that it had hauled in $34.8 million in fundraising from 6pm ET to midnight on Thursday, immediately after the verdict went viral.
On Friday evening, the campaign updated their fundraising total – nearly $53 million over 24 hours.
The campaign highlighted in a release that they raked in ‘a record shattering small dollar fundraising haul and said it was ‘nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform.’ They emphasized that the guilty verdicts ‘have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.’
Trump will continue his fundraising blitz with a swing at the end of next week in California.
The former president heads to the blue bastion of San Francisco on June 6 for a fundraising dinner hosted by tech investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two of the heaviest hitters in Silicon Valley and co-hosts of the hot ‘All-In’ podcast.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a Trump ally and potential 2024 running mate who spent time a few years back in San Francisco working for hedge funds in the tech sector, was instrumental in putting the top dollar fundraising together.
Trump heads south to Beverly Hills for a June 7 fundraiser and a June 8 finance event in Newport Beach in Orange County.
The trip doesn’t mean the Trump campaign thinks overwhelmingly blue California may be in play.
Instead, Trump’s swing and two fundraisers in the Bay Area on June 5 headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris are the latest proof that the Golden State remains a crucial ATM for campaign cash.