Trump campaign raises $141m in May to close funding gap to Biden

Donald Trump significantly outraised President Joe Biden in May, despite becoming the first US president to be convicted of a crime.

Trump’s campaign and the Republic National Committee (RNC) reported that they raised a massive $141m in May. However, they declined to report how much money the campaign had left in their funds at the end of the month, which they are not legally required to report until July.

TheBiden campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $85m in May, with $212m sitting in the campaign’s bank at the end of the month, federal filings released on Thursday detailed. Reports suggest Trump has upwards of $170m. Trump was $100m behind Mr. Biden at the start of April.

Filings show the Trump campaign had $116.5m cash on hand – not committed elsewhere – at the start of June, compared to $91.6m for the Biden campaign.

The Biden fundraising number does not include recent fundraising efforts in June, such as the around $40m raised recently or the $20m donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pro-Biden groups, according to the Associated Press.

Biden’s campaign has been helped by a glitzy, star-studded fundraiser in Hollywood last Saturday that cleaned up a reported $30m. The event included appearances from former president Barack Obama and actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

Trump, who was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the historical hush money trial last month, has not let his criminal conviction stop him from raking in millions of donations in his bid for the presidency. The former president’s campaign reported they raised nearly $53m within the space of 24 hours after the jury in Manhattan handed over the guilty verdict in connection to the