It looks like the quickly infamous crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe that was meant to cover the financial penalties imposed on former President Donald Trump in a New York fraud case is faltering.
Considering the size of those initial penalties, which reached some $355 million, it was always a tall order. That’s the goal that was set for the crowdfunding campaign, which managed to assemble $1.35 million in pledges as of early Friday… while, while a lot, obviously remained well short of the stated goal. Still, GoFundMe does allow fundraising campaigners to actually transfer out donations even if the effort falls short of the stated goal, raising the question of how this money — falling, it seems, way below Trump’s required level — will actually be used.
The effort only received about 18 donations going from Thursday to very early Friday. Among its highest donations across its entire lifespan was an anonymous pledge of $10,000.
As could be expected, those behind the initiative cast Trump’s troubles as meaningfully indicative of legal threats facing Americans more broadly, at least those on the ex-president’s side of the political aisle. In fact, that remains a misrepresentation. “The recent legal battles he faces are not just an attack on him, but an attack on the very ideals of fairness and due process that every American deserves,” the organizer said in featured remarks.
There is no clear evidence of some political conspiracy to use criminal and civil allegations of the sort Trump has faced against Americans more generally or in any context outside the orderly machinations of justice, in which even a prosecutor bringing a case — separate from proving it later — is held to rigorously high standards. As evidenced easily by the shifting scheduling, Trump has held onto the opportunity to bring forth grievances that are then substantially heard by the justice system throughout these whole processes.
