President Joe Biden and former President Trump held competing fundraisers in London on Wednesday, sources told CNN, amid an intensifying race for campaign cash and signs that the former president is gaining some financial ground.
Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, hosted Biden’s event, while actress and political activist Holly Valance hosted the Trump event, which Trump’s son, Don Jr. and his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, attended.
Ric Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany, posted on X that Trump’s event raised $2 million.
London has long been fertile fundraising ground for American politicians, who are allowed to solicit donations from US citizens abroad.
Gwyneth Paltrow, then a resident of the UK, held a fundraiser for then-President Barack Obama during his reelection bid in 2012. And then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney held a fundraiser in the British capital during a visit the same year. Wintour, a longtime Democrat, previously hosted a fundraiser for Biden during Paris Fashion Week in March.
The Financial Times first reported on the fundraisers, which come amid signs of an increasingly competitive money race.
Throughout early 2024, Biden’s reelection effort dominated the fundraising landscape, outraising Trump’s team significantly during the first three months of the year while building a substantial war chest that the campaign said totaled more than $192 million across all of its allied committees entering May.
In April, however, Trump’s first full month as the de-facto GOP nominee, the former president’s team raised $76 million, significantly ahead of Biden’s $51 million haul in the same month, and the first time that Trump’s team outraised Biden’s team this year.
Trump also benefited from a fundraising bonanza following his historic conviction in the criminal hush money trial in New York at the end of last month. His team sent out numerous fundraising appeals to supporters in the aftermath of the high-profile verdict announcement.
