“I am suspending my campaign”
: Donald Trump created a surprise on Monday by sending this message to his supporters, an April Fool's joke which was actually intended to raise new funds for his candidacy for the presidential election in November.
The former Republican president, who seeks to dislodge Democrat Joe Biden from the White House, sent this short text to his voters by email and SMS, along with a link. By clicking on it, his supporters arrived on a site inviting them to donate 5, 500 or 3,300 dollars to his campaign.
“Did you really think I was going to suspend my campaign? April Fool!"
, it is written in capital letters.
Race for dollars
For several years, American voters have been inundated with text messages, emails and calls -- sometimes more than a dozen per day -- inviting them to contribute financially to candidacies. This forces candidate teams to be increasingly creative to stand out. In a country where electoral victories are won with billions of dollars, the donations they collect are extremely precious.
Donald Trump very regularly woos his supporters by talking about his legal troubles.
“The Biden Department of Justice is trying to get me PRISONED FOR LIFE
,” he claims, without evidence, in certain messages.
But Donald Trump's campaign coffers are, for the moment, less full than those of Joe Biden, candidate for re-election. Not to mention that the Republican candidate owes a bail of 175 million dollars to the courts in the wake of his trial for fraud within the Trump Organization. The candidate competes with ideas to raise money. A few days before Easter, he announced the launch of a paid partnership with a country music star to offer a Bible for sale. The former President of the United States had already launched a new model of sneakers in February, to everyone's surprise.
Joe Biden's campaign team is relishing this financial advantage by calling out
"broke Don"
in an email about the billionaire, himself a big fan of cruel nicknames.