Seth Meyers trolls Trump over his pursuit of mega-donors

Seth Meyers has mocked Donald Trump over his alleged increased efforts to bring in mega-donors to his presidential campaign.

“Yeah, I wonder why,” the host said on his Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday night, while trolling the former president with a headline about him being ordered to pay $83m in defamation damages to E Jean Carroll.

“Suddenly, 50 bucks just ain’t cutting it anymore,” Mr Meyers mocked.

Mr Trump has allegedly ramped up his pursuit of mega-donors by going the extra mile: personal calls, motorcade rides and even meals at his Mar-a-Lago private club, a source familiar with the efforts told CNN.

Mr Meyers joked that Mr Trump may be trying to rack up even more donations after the verdict in his defamation case last week, saying that President Joe Biden was recently in Palm Beach and Miami for fundraisers “while Trump travelled to New York for the exact opposite of a fundraiser”.

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According to CNN, Mr Trump is hoping to do a little fundraising of his own, after Aerospace businessman Robert Bigelow and Las Vegas entrepreneur Don Ahern met with the former president and travelled in his motorcade to his Nevada campaign event.

Mr Trump has reportedly managed to gain financial commitments from the two businessmen, as well as other mega-donors.

Mr Bigalow told Reuters that he has given Mr Trump $1m to help fund his legal battles and has agreed to donate a further $20m to a pro-Trump group.

“I gave him $1m towards his legal fees a few weeks ago. I made a promise to give him $20m more, that will be to the super PAC,” the businessman said.

While Mr Trump’s payout to Ms Carroll has already been confirmed, the former president may still face even further knocks to his bank account when Judge Arthur Engoron delivers his verdict in his civil fraud trial.

The judge is expected to deliver a judgement as soon as this week in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the Trump Organisation.

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The AG sued Mr Trump and his adult sons, Donald Jr and Eric, as well as their chief associates, for routinely inflating and overestimating the company assets between 2011 and 2021, to get loans and insurance deals from lenders.

Ms James is seeking $370m plus interest in financial penalties, although around $10.5m would be owed by Don Jr, Eric Trump, former CFO Allen Weisselberg and ex-controller Jeffrey McConney, according to Forbes.

On top of this, it was revealed in campaign filings seen by The New York Times that Mr Trump’s political action committees had spent roughly $50m in legal costs last year as he traversed four criminal indictments and numerous civil litigation.

Federal Election Commission campaign filings recently shed light on a string of legal expenses to more than 50 firms and attorneys.

Yet, does all this matter to Mr Trump?

Forbes has estimated that Mr Trump’s net worth stood at around $2.6bn as of September 2023, much of which is estimated on his real estate assets through the Trump Organisation.

While still an impressive number, it is somewhat shrunk from Forbes’ $3.2bn estimation in 2021 or the $4.5bn amount he may have been in worth 2015, one year before becoming president.

The Independent has contacted Mr Trump’s office for comment.