Biden seeks to capitalize on star-studded Hollywood fundraiser after Trump's massive blue-state cash drive

After former President Trump's lucrative three-day trip through California, President Biden is returning to the West Coast to tap the Democratic-dominated state's political ATM.

With less than five months until the November election, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel will interview Biden and former President Obama as they team up with Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts during a star-studded fundraiser expected to raise millions. .

This is the latest case of national politicians coming to California to replenish their campaign coffers. According to Federal Election Commission figures, Biden and Trump have raised more money in California this cycle than in any other state.

“When politicians look west, they see a field of green,” California-based veteran political scientist Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College told Fox News.

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Tickets for the gala at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, described by an invitation as a “historic evening,” ranged from $250 for a single person to half a million dollars for special access, photos with Biden and Obama. and invitations to an after-party.

The president arrives in California a week after Trump left the Golden State.

Trump's team said that once all the money is tallied, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is expected to raise about $27.5 million from three fundraisers in California and one in Las Vegas, a senior campaign official at Fox News.

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And the Trump campaign said another $6 million was raised for outside groups supporting his 2024 election rematch with Biden.

Trump aims to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised more than the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee for the first time.

Trump's campaign announced it a week ago, and the RNC, fueled in part by the former president's guilty verdicts in his recently concluded criminal trial, raised a staggering $141 million in May .

Trump was convicted on all 34 counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation's history.

The former president's campaign noted that in the 24 hours after the verdict, he and the RNC brought in nearly $53 million, which counted toward May's total.

The Biden campaign also raised money from the Trump verdict, and a source told Fox News “the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the Biden campaign's best 24 hours of fundraising since it started.”

While Trump's California fundraiser was fueled by major Republican Party donors, including tech industry investors and hedge fund giants, Saturday's fundraiser for Biden is orchestrated by the Democratic machine Hollywood.

It is not a surprise. The entertainment industry, which showered Presidents Clinton and Obama with campaign cash, has long been known for its Democratic leanings.

And even though Biden, 81, doesn't have the close connections to Hollywood that his Democratic predecessors enjoyed, he can still draw crowds.

“Any Democratic presidential candidate will be able to raise a lot of money in California, and an incumbent president has a big advantage. When the president walks into a room, the room fills with money,” he said. Pitney said.

Major strikes by two Hollywood unions representing film and television writers and actors from May to November last year set back Biden in his fundraising in Los Angeles entertainment circles.

But the president began making up for lost time in December with a major fundraiser hosted by famed directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner. Saturday's mega-fundraiser was orchestrated by media mogul and Democratic rainmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-chairman of the Biden campaign.

Katzenberg also hosted a major fundraiser with Biden, Obama and Clinton in March at New York's famed Radio City Music Hall, which raised $26 million.

The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have brought in many well-known stars and performers from the entertainment world as the president seeks a second term.

Among those lending a hand was famed actor Robert De Niro, who led a Biden campaign news conference outside the New York courthouse during the final days of Trump's trial.

The press conference went viral after De Niro, who played gangsters in cinematic masterpieces such as “The Godfather Part II” and “Goodfellas,” shouted to nearby Trump supporters that “You are gangsters” as they shouted obscenities at the actor.

Actor Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, recently made an unannounced appearance in the White House briefing room to congratulate the president and called Biden “Joe-Bi-Wan-Kenobi.”

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Spielberg has helped the DNC with its storytelling efforts, and Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris during a recent tour of battleground Michigan.

Trump, whose last California fundraiser took place last weekend in a gated community in Newport Beach, Calif., and included veteran actor Jon Voight, will spend this weekend in Michigan, holding several events , including a panel discussion at a northwest Detroit church.

The Trump campaign argued that the former president would meet with “ordinary Americans” while “Biden would attend a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser with his elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors who own him.”

The Trump campaign and its Republican allies also criticized the president for skipping a Ukraine peace conference being held this weekend in Switzerland to attend the fundraiser in California. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the United States at the peace talks.

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