Trump campaign says single event brings in record $50.5M haul
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised $50.5 million on Saturday, a staggering reported haul as his campaign works to catch up to the fundraising juggernaut of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
The reported haul from the event with major donors at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor John Paulson sets a new single-event fundraising record and is almost double the previous singleevent fundraising record set March 28 by President Joe Biden that netted $26 million.
Saturday’s event, billed as the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” sends a signal of a resurgence of Trump and the Republican Party’s fundraising, which has lagged behind Biden and the Democrats.
Campaign fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission detailing donations from Saturday’s event are not expected until a mid-July filing date.
Trump initially struggled to attract big donors in particular when he launched his campaign and some lined up to support the other Republicans who challenged him in the presidential primary. But as Trump racked up easy wins, leveled the field and became the party’s presumptive nominee, the GOP has solidified behind him.
Saturday’s high-dollar event hosted about 100 guests, including more than a few billionaires. Contributions to the event will go toward the Trump 47 Committee, according to the invitation, a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee, state Republican parties and Save
America, a political action committee that pays the bulk of Trump’s legal bills. In an unusual arrangement, the fundraising agreement directs donations to first pay the maximum allowed under law to his campaign and Save America before the RNC or state parties get a cut.
The fundraising arrangement doesn’t direct RNC funds to Trump’s legal bills. But when checks of any amount are written to the combined campaign, the campaign and Save America get paid first by default.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee said Saturday that they raised more than $90 million in March and ended the year’s first quarter with $192 million-plus in cash on hand, stretching their financial advantage over Donald Trump and the Republicans.
The Biden campaign and its affiliated entities reported collecting $187 million from January through March and said that 96% of all donations were less than $200.
That total was bolstered by the more than $26 million Biden reported raising from a March 28 event at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan that featured former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The campaign said the total as of March 31 was the highest by any Democratic candidate.
Police in Vermont are seeking a suspect who allegedly started a fire Friday outside the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. The blaze caused minor damage but no injuries.
Authorities say an unknown male suspect sprayed what they described as a possible accelerant on the office door, set it on
Sanders office fire:
Hungarians gather Saturday in Budapest to support political newcomer Peter Magyar, formerly an insider with the country’s ruling Fidesz party. The rising challenger to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán mobilized tens of thousands of supporters, outlining a plan to unite the country and end the populist leader’s 14-year hold on power.
fire and fled. They said the suspect remained at large and no motive had been established.
Sanders, an independent allied with the Democratic Party, was not at the office.
Procter & Gamble is recalling more than 8 million bags of Tide, Gain, Ace and Ariel laundry detergent packets sold in the U.S. and Canada due to a defect in the products’ child-resistant packaging.
According to Friday notices from both P&G and product-safety regulators in the U.S. and Canada, the outer packaging meant to prevent easy access to the liquid laundry detergent pods can split open near the zipper track, posing serious risks to children and others who may ingest them, in addition to possible skin or eye injuries.
So far, there have been no confirmed injuries tied to the defect.
The recall applies to select batches of detergents manufactured between Septem
Detergent recall:
ber 2023 and February 2024.
Consumers in possession of the recalled bags are instructed to keep the products out of the reach and sight of children and contact P&G for a full refund and replacement child-resistant bag to store the detergent, which remains safe to use for laundry purposes.
Russian missile strikes in Ukraine on Saturday and the previous night killed eight people and wounded 12 more, officials said.
According to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, six people were killed and 11 were wounded in overnight missile attacks on the city of Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second largest. The attack damaged residential buildings, a gas station, a kindergarten, a cafe, a shop and cars.
On Saturday afternoon, a strike on Kharkiv killed another person and left one more wounded, said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov. Another missile strike
Russia-Ukraine war:
killed a civilian in the southern Odesa region, its governor, Oleh Kiper, reported.
Floods caused by the rising Ural River broke a dam in a city near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, forcing some 2,000 people to evacuate, local authorities said.
The dam broke in the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, about 12 miles north of the border Friday night, according to Orsk Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. By Saturday morning, more than 2,400 residential buildings in the city of 200,000 were flooded and electricity was cut off in several areas.
According to local authorities, the dam could withstand water levels up to nearly 18 feet. On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 30.5 feet and was rising, Kozupitsa said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe to look into suspected construction safety regulations violations and negligence that
Russia flooding:
could have caused the dam to burst.
The demolition of a building leaning precariously after an earthquake in Taiwan was halted Saturday after aftershocks made it lean even more, media reports said.
The red building, about 10 stories tall and inclined over a street in the city of Hualien, has become an iconic image from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that also buried people under boulders at nearby Taroko National Park, a popular hiking destination northwest of Hualien.
The death toll rose to 13 after a third victim was found on a park trail. Six other people are still missing, including three on the same trail. More than 400 people remained stranded three days after the quake in locations cut off by damage.
Hundreds of aftershocks have struck the area since the Wednesday-morning quake off Taiwan’s east coast.