Since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home last Monday, Donald Trump has not stopped yelling about it. He’s been posting nonstop to Truth Social, his social media platform basically designed specifically to air fabricated right-wing grievances without pushback. His attorneys have been appearing on Fox News to talk about how poorly he’s being treated. Trump has spent a week and a half yelling about political witch hunts and accusing the FBI of planting evidence. And it’s all working, because it’s making him a ton of money.
The Washington Post reports that Trump was raising over a million dollars a day following the FBI’s search, thanks to both an increased number of donors and a higher average donation amount. The paper writes that “The donations stayed unusually high for several more days and are still above average, both of these people said, though they have leveled off in recent days,” which definitely explains why Trump has been doing things like, for example, trying to renew fresh anger over the seizure of his passports, even after they’d been returned to him. He was trying to stoke that early-days anger any way he could.
Trump has been milking the effects of that anger in more ways than just the financial. He’s been indicating that he wants to run for president again in 2024 but hasn’t officially announced his candidacy. He has, however, been suggesting that the search of his home—timed alongside his forced deposition in the New York Attorney General’s investigation into his finances—were specifically orchestrated to squash his unofficial campaign. In reality, it’s only been a boon for him (for now, hopefully).
Pundits on the far-right network Newsmax speculated this week that if Trump is indicted, he will announce his candidacy for president. What better time to capitalize on his supporters’ anger? They also took time to clarify that a person can, in fact, run for—or even be—president from federal prison, because that’s just where we are right now.
(via Washington Post, image: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images)
