Donald Trump and his 2024 White House campaign are cashing in on the former president’s indictment and Tuesday’s arraignment in New York City.
Adviser Jason Miller announced on Monday night that the campaign had hauled in over $8 million in fundraising since last Thursday, when Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to be charged with a crime.
Trump’s was arraigned for allegedly giving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep her quiet ahead of that year’s presidential election over her claims she had sexual encounters years earlier with Trump. The former president denies sleeping with Daniels and denies falsifying business records to keep the payment concealed.
The former president’s campaign quickly capitalized on the indictment news, sending out fundraising emails to supporters and running ads on Facebook.
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"The Radical Left — the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this country — have INDICTED me in a disgusting witch hunt," Trump claimed in one of a handful of fundraising emails his campaign committees sent to supporters. "Please make a contribution — of truly any amount — to defend our movement from the never-ending witch hunts and WIN the WHITE HOUSE in 2024."
The former president, who announced his third White House bid in November, has seen his polling lead over the rest of the actual and potential field in the GOP nomination race increase the past couple of weeks, as the indictment loomed. And his numbers have continued to soar in surveys conducted since last week’s indictment.
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GOP pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts Fox News surveys with Democrat Chris Anderson, said last week ahead of the indictment that the news "has helped Trump quite a bit among Republican primary voters,"
Shaw emphasized that GOP primary voters "view the case as politically motivated, and it reanimates feelings that Trump is still fighting forces they see as corrupt and out of control."
An indictment for any alleged crime, the accompanying perp walk and ensuing court hearings may sound like a death knell for a politician on the ballot. But for Trump — who’s hardly a normal politician — it’s a gift.
The former president has long thrived on chaos and turmoil as he’s successfully portrayed himself to his supporters as a victim of the establishment, the "deep state," liberal forces and the mainstream media.
The indictment firmly puts the 2024 spotlight back on Trump — where he wants it — and will make it more difficult for any of his rivals to gain traction, effectively freezing Trump’s position as the clear front-runner during the early legs of the primary battle.
"In the short term, there’s a rallying effect, there’s a fundraising effect, which Trump is going to fully employ," longtime Republican strategist David Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and Iowa-based campaigns, told Fox News.
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South Carolina-based conservative consultant Dave Wilson noted that "it gives Trump a bump in the polls. It’s a natural thing because he’s getting news coverage again."
But the big question is whether a short-term bounce is sustainable. As details of Trump’s alleged involvement with Daniels grabs outsized attention in the days and weeks ahead, many wonder whether the former president suffer repercussions with social conservative voters who play an outsized role in Republican politics in Iowa and South Carolina — the first and third states in the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar.
"Longer term — we need to know more," Kochel noted. "That stuff will roll out over the next several weeks and months as you go through the process. Iowa Evangelicals aren’t going to like hearing about the former president paying off a porn star. There’s the potential for it to be a negative in the long term."
But Kochel emphasized that "Trump is very good in going to guns when he’s challenged like this."
Wilson said the question is whether Trump’s initial bump will be "sustainable over time."
"There’s going to be a question among certain Evangelical voters as to whether or not this is something they want to wrap themselves around when it comes to Donald Trump. It’s a turnoff for some people, especially in the evangelical community," Wilson said.
In New Hampshire, which votes second in the GOP primary schedule, Neil Levesque, longtime director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, weighed in.
"This will mean that Trump is front and center as we go into the nominating process, whether good or bad. How much of a distraction and how much will other candidates be able to get attention is a big question," Levesque said.
"As this goes forward, how much will Republicans say, ‘Is this the best candidate we can put forward against Biden?’ Or will they double down and say, ‘He’s part of our tribe, we need to get behind him?' Those are the great unknowns."
