Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as his motorcade leaves Manhattan Criminal Court at the end of the day's proceedings on May 14, 2024 in New York City.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as his motorcade leaves Manhattan Criminal Court at the end of the day's proceedings on May 14, 2024 in New York City.
  • Trump's donation page crashed just after he was found guilty of 34 felony charges in New York.
  • He's been messaging supporters since the verdict, urging them to give money to his 2024 campaign.
  • His website page for his "Dark MAGA hat" said 82,000 people had donated.

Former President Donald Trump's fundraising page crashed Thursday evening after he called for donations following his guilty verdict in a criminal trial in Manhattan.

The crash was reported by Trump's 2024 campaign team in a post on X at about 5:50 p.m., less than an hour after the former president was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

"So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump's campaign that the WinRed pages went down," the post read. "We are working on getting the website back online as quickly as possible. Stay strong."

About 30 minutes later, the account posted an update saying the website was back online.

The New York Times and CNBC also reported on the outage.

Preliminary trend data from Google shows that searches for "Donald Trump donation" jumped to a four-year high this week.

Trump, who has decried the jury's decision, sent his supporters multiple messages linking to his donation pages in the hours after the verdict.

His main fundraising page features his mugshot from August when he surrendered to Georgia authorities at the Fulton County Jail. A caption under the photo reads, "Never Surrender."

Donors can contribute $100 to his campaign under the option: "DONATE THIS AMOUNT IF YOU THINK PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOTHING WRONG!"

He's also started selling a "Dark MAGA hat," writing in a caption that he was "JUST CONVICTED IN A WITCH HUNT TRIAL."

The black baseball cap is emblazoned with the slogans "Never Surrender" and "Make America Great Again." On its page, options to qualify for the hat start at $47.

A counter stated that more than 82,000 people had contributed donations.

CNBC reported that Trump attended a fundraiser in New York after his verdict, then returned to Trump Tower at around 9:25 p.m.

The former president habitually campaigns for small-donor funds using landmark moments in his legal troubles. After being indicted in Manhattan in April 2023, the Trump campaign said he made about $5 million in donations in 48 hours.

A spokesperson for Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

He's not been the only one to capitalize on his conviction. On Thursday evening, Democratic PAC MoveOn said it received 10,000 orders in 10 minutes for stickers that depicted Trump with the word "FELON" plastered over his eyes.

The stickers are given as a reward to supporters who complete a contact sheet on the PAC's website.

Trump faces another three criminal cases, though none are expected to go to trial before the 2024 election.

Read the original article on Business Insider