Donald Trump Scores Series of Wins Amid Legal Problems

Donald Trump has seen some positive news for his 2024 election campaign despite his criminal hush money trial in New York.

In recent days, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has seen several polls that show he is leading President Joe Biden ahead of November’s election, as well as reports showing Trump is raising more money than his Democratic rival for the first time in this campaign cycle.

Trump’s latest White House bid ran the risk of being overshadowed by his legal difficulties. The former president is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records in relation to hush money his lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret in 2016. Trump has pleaded guilty to all charges and denies the affair.

However, while still more than five months away, polls are continuing to suggest that the trial is not damaging Trump’s 2024 hopes. He is currently the front-runner in the rematch of the 2020 race.

Trump’s criminal cases also do not appear to harm his campaign financially. The former president’s team says that his fundraising efforts, combined with the Republican National Committee, raised more than $76 million in April, eclipsing Biden’s haul last month by around $25 million.

Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11. Trump has seen some positive news for his 2024 campaign related to fundraising and polls.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The figures, reported by Reuters and Associated Press, are the first time that Trump has managed to outraise Biden this election cycle. Filings with the Federal Election Commission on Monday night revealed that the president’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $51 million in April, a sharp fall from the $90 million raised in March.

In a statement to Newsweek, Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said that the former president’s fundraising haul over Biden is “especially remarkable when you consider he has been confined to a courtroom for nearly nine hours a day over the past four weeks” while he attends his hush money trial proceedings.

“President Trump’s fundraising prowess and his increasingly dominant position in the polls proves three things—the momentum is 100 percent on President Trump’s side, Americans see the truth about Joe Biden’s witch-hunt trial in New York, and they want President Trump back in the White House to Make America Great Again,” Leavitt said.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez insisted that April’s haul reflects “strong, consistent grassroots enthusiasm” for the president.

“Trump’s operation continues to burn through cash and lag behind our growing and aggressive campaign, with no ground game and no demonstrable interest in talking to the voters they need to win,” Rodríguez said.

Elsewhere, Trump received further good news with poll results, continuing a trend that has seen the Republican as the slight favorite to enter the White House next year.

A May 20 poll among 1,660 registered voters, conducted by The Harris Poll and HarrisX, found that Trump has a six-point lead over Biden in a face-to-face race matchup (49 percent to 43).

Trump also leads when independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is introduced to the poll, although by a slightly narrower margin (43 percent to 39, with Kennedy on 12 percent).

A recent Echelon Insights survey conducted between May 13 and 16 also showed Trump leading Biden in a two-way race (49 percent to 46) and a three-way race including Kennedy (43 percent to 38 and Kennedy at nine percent).

According to election forecasters 270 to Win, Trump is currently leading the national polls on average by just under two points (45.8 percent to Biden’s 44 percent) based on the last eight surveys.

Closing arguments in Trump’s hush money trial are expected next week.