Donald Trump promised to keep billionaires’ taxes low at a fundraising dinner Saturday night in Palm Beach, Fla., held at the home of billionaire John Paulson.
A Trump campaign official told NBC News that the former president “spoke on the need to win back the White House so we can turn our country around, focusing on key issues including unleashing energy production, securing our southern border, reducing inflation, extending the Trump Tax Cuts, eliminating Joe Biden’s insane [electric vehicle] mandate, protecting Israel, and avoiding global war.” NBC News requested to have a reporter present at the fundraiser, but the campaign refused.
Trump’s campaign told media that the fundraiser yielded more than $50.5 million for Trump’s campaign, his political action committee, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and state parties — although that total has not been independently verified. If Trump’s numbers are accurate (reminder: a court found that Trump committed fraud by lying about his net worth), they would set a record and nearly double the $26 million Biden brought in during a New York City fundraiser with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Biden is still ahead of Trump in dollars raised. In March, Biden outpaced Trump in funds raised by a significant amount. Biden and the Democratic National Committee brought in $90 million combined last month, while Trump and the Republican National Committee raised $66 million. At the end of March, Biden had almost $100 million more in cash on hand than his GOP rival.
Some billionaires who abandoned Trump in the wake of Jan. 6 and who supported his opponents in the primary have come crawling back to the former president in hopes of keeping their tax burden low.
Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz — who apologized after Jan. 6 for supporting Trump, telling CNBC, “I’m sorry I did that” — recently hosted a breakfast at his Palm Beach mansion attended by Trump and several other billionaires, including Steve Wynn and Elon Musk, according to The Washington Post. Oracle’s Larry Ellison is also considering cutting Trump’s campaign a check, while billionaire heirs Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein told the Financial Times that they intend to donate to the former president’s campaign.
“While Donald Trump has been busy awarding himself golf trophies at Mar-a-Lago and palling around with billionaires, Joe Biden has been crisscrossing the nation connecting with voters and outlining his vision to grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
The day of the fundraiser, Trump posted about his legal woes on Truth Social, complaining about a gag order the judge in his upcoming hush money trial imposed on him. “If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump wrote.
Harrison responded to the post, saying in a statement, “Imagine being so self-centered that you compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela all within the span of little more than a week: that’s Donald Trump for you.”
