President Donald Trump raised $236 million for his campaign in the first half of 2025, an unprecedented amount for a second-term president, with the assistance of billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Yass along with crypto industry donors
According to the most recent reports to the Federal Election Commission, Trump has $274 million in cash on hand after the fundraising haul, which includes contributions to three leadership PACs, joint fundraising committees, and an affiliated super PAC.
In the midterm elections, when the party of the current president often loses seats, he may utilize this enormous war chest to support Republican candidates for the House and Senate. It also shows how tightly Trump still holds onto the Republican Party.
With $177 million, MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, was the largest source of campaign funding. Four $1 million-per-plate dinners for MAGA Inc. contributors and a $1.5 million-per-plate event for investors and entrepreneurs in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, two cutting-edge technologies that have been a priority of his administration, have been hosted by the president.
Even if the FEC records don’t specify whether a donor submitted a check or went to an event, they do show that Trump has the backing of tech, banking, and energy professionals. Yass, who is a significant stakeholder in ByteDance Ltd, the parent company of TikTok, and a co-founder of the trading company Susquehanna International Group, donated $16 million. $25 million was donated by pipeline millionaire Kelcy Warren and his firm, Energy Transfer LP.
Donors from the cryptocurrency sector also poured in money. Crypto.com’s parent company, Foris DAX Inc., contributed $10 million, while Blockchain.com Inc. contributed $5 million. In addition to the $3 million apiece from venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the wealthy twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss contributed slightly over $2 million.
After quitting his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency in late May, Musk, a longtime Trump friend, fell out with the president and donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. Trump and Republicans have come under fire from Musk for their hallmark spending and tax measure. On June 27, Musk made his gift, the same day he sent $5 million checks to two super PACs that support Republican candidates in the Senate and House. In July, Musk promised to establish a third party.
The funding offers Republicans a significant financial edge over Democrats, who lack a single leader to unite around or lead fundraising efforts, even if it does not certain that they will maintain their slim gains in the House and Senate.
Future Forward, the party’s primary super PAC, received donations of around $1 million, while the Democratic National Committee raised $69 million.
Big-Dollar Donors
Although Trump’s fundraising was still mostly driven by wealthy donors (about 70% of his total revenue came from individuals who contributed $1 million or more), the support of small donors, who are the foundation of his political operation, slowed. He raised $22 million from donors who gave less than $200, primarily through Trump National JFC, which divides contributions between the Republican National organization and the Never Surrender PAC, his previous presidential campaign organization.
Never Surrender and his other leadership PACs, Make America Great Again PAC and Save America, had $41 million in cash on hand at the end of June. He has used Save America to pay his legal fees. Of the $26.5 million spent by the three committees, $6 million was spent on legal expenses.
Trump is still attempting to overturn his 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying company records to conceal hush-money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels. He is also defending a civil fraud judgment and a punishment that has risen to $500 million as a result of a litigation over his real estate assessments, as well as a $83.3 million defamation award to writer E. Jean Carroll.
