NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — A mug shot of Donald Trump, taken at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia and later prominently shown on his social media, has sparked a flurry of donations to his 2024 presidential campaign.

Campaign officials says Trump has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in the state. As part of the court procedures, he became the first former president in U.S. history to have a law enforcement mug shot taken.

Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day to date.

The record haul underscores how Trump's legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his campaign, even as his political operation has spent tens of millions on his defense.

While Trump described his appearance Thursday as a “terrible experience” and said posing for the historic mug shot was “not a comfortable feeling,” his campaign immediately seized on its fundraising power. Before he had even flown home to New Jersey, his campaign was using it in fundraising pitches to supporters.

Trump amplified that message both on his Truth Social site and by returning to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in two-and-a-half years to share the image and direct supporters to a fundraising page.

Within hours, the campaign had also released a new line of merchandise featuring the image that includes T-shirts, beer can wraps, bumper stickers, a signed poster, bumper stickers and mug shot mugs.

The new contributions, Cheung said, helped push the campaign's fundraising haul over the last three weeks to close to $20 million. The former president is routinely beating his Republican rivals in polls with the campaign season in its early stages.

In the meantime, Trump’s political operation has faced tens of millions of dollars on legal expenses as he battles charges in four separate jurisdictions. Recent campaign finance filing showed that his political committees have paid out at least $59.2 million to more than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021.

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