It’s going to be a blockbuster
All over cable news today are breathless reports about how “momentum” has shifted toward Trump because he collected $141 million last month compared to Biden’s apparently paltry $84 million. But they fail to mention that most of Trump’s money came from 3 billionaires, one of whom was this guy:
Timothy Mellon, a reclusive heir to a Gilded Age fortune, donated $50 million to a super PAC supporting Donald J. Trump the day after the former president was convicted of 34 felonies, according to new federal filings, an enormous gift that is among the largest single disclosed contributions ever.
The donation’s impact on the 2024 race is expected to be felt almost immediately. Within days of the contribution, the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., said in a memo that it would begin reserving $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.
The group had only $34.5 million on hand at the end of April, and Mr. Mellon’s contribution accounted for much of the nearly $70 million that the super PAC raised in May. On Wednesday and Thursday, the super PAC began reserving $30 million in ads to air in Georgia and Pennsylvania around the Fourth of July holiday.
Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.
CNN actually said that Mellon had changed teams when it’s been obvious from the beginning that he was backing RFK on behalf of Trump.
Trump is out there selling himself to the highest bidder explicitly promising rich people that if they give him huge sums of money he will take care of them, if you know what I mean. He told the oil company execs that if they give him a billion dollars he’ll make sure their taxes are slashed and their regulations are reversed. It used to be that such explicit quid pro quos were considered to be liabilities. Today, not so much.
Biden collected big bucks from billionaires too, including Michael Bloomberg who gave 20 million. But the idea that these huge numbers reflect anything about the electorate is ridiculous at this point. It certainly says something about our campaign system and capitalism but that’s a different story.