Dem
51
GOP
49
For Donald Trump there is no such thing as bad news. There are only fundraising opportunities. After his arraignment on Tuesday, he visited a Cuban restaurant in Miami and then flew to his Bedminster, NJ, golf club for a candelight dinner with big donors. He raised $2.04 million at that event. From his point of view, Tuesday was thus a very good day for him. Remember, it is all about the money. All in all, Trump has raised $7 million since his indictment.
The donors present at the Bedminster club were all big donors or big bundlers. Only people who had contributed or gathered up $100,000 were invited. This is not to say that Trump doesn't get money from small donors—he does—but he depends on big donors as well. Clearly the big donors who ponied up $2 million think he has a good chance to be elected president in 2024 or they wouldn't have contributed. No big donor wants to throw good money after bad. They are much less impulsive than small donors who don't think much about return on investment.
At the dinner, Trump unleashed a torrent of insults at Jack Smith. He called Smith a deranged lunatic, a thug, and a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater. Trump knows that Smith won't sue him for defamation, but if Smith did, he would probably have a strong case. Trump also attacked Smith's wife, Katy Chevigny, a documentary filmmaker who worked on a documentary about Michelle Obama. These remarks may fire up the base but may also interest other people in the documentary about Obama. (V)