Trump Eyes Record $43 Million Fundraiser as Biden Campaign Announces $90 Million Haul in March

(Left) President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23, 2024. (Right) Former President Donald Trump arrives at a Manhattan Court in New York City on Feb. 15, 2024. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images; Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign expects to raise a record-breaking $43 million at a single big fundraiser in Florida on Saturday as it looks to narrow the gap with the war chest of the Biden campaign, which said it raised over $90 million in March.

President Joe Biden’s campaign announced on April 6 that it raised more than $90 million in March, bringing its total cash on hand to $192 million. The campaign boasted that this is the highest total amassed by any Democrat candidate in history at this point in the election cycle.

“The money we are raising is historic, and it’s going to the critical work of building a winning operation,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager, said in a statement.

The amount the Biden campaign has raised so far is more than double the haul of the Trump campaign, which closed out the month of March with $93.1 million in its coffers.

President Trump is looking to narrow that gap, however, with earlier reporting from The Epoch Times indicating that his campaign has already secured $43 million for the April 6 “Inaugural Leadership Dinner” in Palm Beach, Florida.

“The response to our fundraising efforts has been overwhelming, and we’ve raised over $43 million so far,” billionaire John Paulson told The Epoch Times in an email sent by a spokeswoman. “There is massive support amongst a broad spectrum of donors.”

When the dust settles on the Palm Beach event on Saturday and the $43 million becomes official, it will mark the biggest-ever single-day fundraising haul in the history of U.S. politics.

It will also be 65 percent higher than the current record-breaking $26 million that President Biden raked in from a recent star-studded event in New York, and will help the Trump campaign close the fundraising gap.

“Our campaign, working together with the RNC, has been steadily ramping up our fundraising efforts, and our March numbers are a testament to the overwhelming support for President Trump by voters all across the spectrum,” Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign, said in a statement on April 3, when the Trump campaign announced its March haul of $65.6 million.

President Biden’s $90 million March fundraising came in a month where his campaign sharply ramped up its operations, adding over 100 field offices and announcing a $30 million ad buying spree.

Most Expensive Election Cycle in History

The two men are poised to face off in the Nov. 5 general election in a repeat matchup of 2020, which was the most expensive federal campaign in history.

In the 2020 election cycle, spending on the presidential race exceeded $6 billion, according to OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in American politics.

Spending in the 2024 cycle is expected to set new records, with advertising monitoring firm AdImpact projecting that over $10.2 billion will be spent on political ads, or roughly 13 percent higher than four years ago.

The Biden campaign and allied groups have spent over $16 million on ads since the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5, and have $132 million reserved in ads through Election Day, according to AdImpact.

By contrast, the Trump campaign and its allies have spent $3.4 million since Super Tuesday, with $265,000 in currently booked ads.

President Trump’s high-dollar fundraiser on Saturday is expected to host around 100 guests, including several billionaires.

According to an invitation to the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” contributions will go toward the Trump 47 Committee, which is a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties and Save America, a political action committee.

Republican support has solidified behind President Trump as he racked up easy wins in the primaries and became the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

“Now that President Trump won the primaries, defeating all 10 contenders by a landslide, I think it’s time for Republicans to unite behind him,” Mr. Paulsen recently told Bloomberg. “For that reason, I’m hosting this inaugural event to galvanize the broad support there is for the president.”

President Biden’s fundraiser in New York was attended by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.