A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the adage goes. And as it turns out, former President Donald Trump’s picture is worth $9 million.
The former president and leading GOP presidential front-runner, who was photographed last week when he surrendered at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, said that his campaign has raised more than $9 million from small-dollar donors in the most significant grassroots effort of his political career.
“Since the moment my mugshot was plastered all over the Internet in a vicious attempt to wrongfully turn me into a criminal, our movement has RAISED $9 million from grassroots patriots like YOU,” he said in an email to supporters on Monday evening.
“In fact, our campaign recorded its SINGLE GREATEST FUNDRAISING DAY EVER.”
Trump and 18 of his closest allies are being charged in a sweeping racketeering scheme, which involved spreading conspiracy theories, pressuring elected officials and propping up fake electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia in a desperate effort to remain in power despite having lost the presidency in a free and fair vote.
The charges follow a two-year investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The indictment marks the fourth set of criminal charges against Trump, who now faces a cumulative 91 felony counts in New York state court for hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, in federal court in Florida where he’s been accused of mishandling classified documents, in federal court in the District of Columbia in connection with efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and incite a violent insurrection at the Capitol and in Georgia.
Unlike his other surrenders, the one in Atlanta included a photograph – a mug shot that became a part of American history the second the shutter clicked as the first former U.S. president was captured glaring, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed through the lens, wearing his signature navy suit, white shirt and red tie.
The photo was trending on social media less than an hour after it was captured and stamped onto T-shirts and for sale by the Trump campaign within hours.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges for which he has been arraigned and denied wrongdoing in all the cases against him. He continues to repeat unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” and that the indictments that followed amount to a witch hunt and election interference. In reality, Trump lost the general election to Biden, and, in Georgia specifically, he lost by some 11,779 votes.
While the exact fundraising figures cannot be confirmed until the campaign files federal disclosures this month, the surge is not entirely a surprise. He raised upward of $7 million in the wake of his first indictment in April related to hush money payments to Daniels and $6.6 million after his second indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents.
The funds will likely be used to pay costs associated with his mounting legal challenges, busy court calendar and rotating cast of attorneys and defense teams. As of earlier this month, Trump’s political action committee, Save America, had already spent more than $40 million dating back to 2021 on his legal fees.
