August 27, 2023

Trump Has Already Raised Millions Off His Georgia Mug Shot

The former president’s campaign brought in a record-smashing $4.18 million on Friday.

Fulton County Sheriff's Office/AP

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Donald Trump’s mug shot has powered a historic fundraising blitz for the former president.

Trump’s campaign says it has raised $7.1 million since he was processed at an Atlanta jail on Thursday night for attempting to overturn the Georgia election, according to figures first reported by Politico. On Friday, Trump raised $4.18 million—more than any other day of his campaign.

The fundraising haul has been fueled in part by the campaign’s sale of mug-shot-adorned T-shirts, mugs, and more that read, “NEVER SURRENDER.”

Following his arrest on Thursday, Trump returned to X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in more than two years, posting his mug shot and directing supporters to his campaign website. “What has taken place is a travesty of justice and ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” the site claims. He asked his supporters donate to the campaign to “evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House and SAVE AMERICA during this dark chapter in our nation’s history.”

The haul demonstrates Trump’s success in turning his four indictments into fundraising ammo. Over the past three weeks, during which Trump was indicted in Washington, DC, on charges related to his role in the January 6 riot and arrested in Georgia on charges of attempting to subvert the election, the campaign has brought in nearly $20 million—more than half of what it raised during Trump’s first seven months in the 2024 race.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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