After the New York jury unanimously found Donald Trump guilty on Thursday, several things happened.
Former President Donald Trump spoke outside the courthouse about the verdict and the judge (if you missed his remarks, you can watch them in part two below).
READ MORE: BREAKING NEWS: Jury finds former President Donald Trump guilty
WATCH: Donald Trump reacts to 34-count guilty verdict in New York case
Then the Trump fundraising page crashed amid the flood of people using it; many people reported this on the X platform:
.@TheLastRefuge2 Trump’s donation page crashed! 😃 pic.twitter.com/caq9PRiGyo
— Chase Freedom (@ChaseFreedom10) May 30, 2024
BREAKING NEWS: Trump’s fundraising page CRASHES after guilty verdict. pic.twitter.com/l1nJ14ojKb
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 30, 2024
Our colleagues at Townhall.com covered both the crash of the site and its fleeting reappearance – with a striking rebranding:
Shortly after former President Trump was found guilty on all counts in the hush money trial, his campaign website redirected visitors to a fundraising page that promptly crashed.
“Is this the end of America? I was just convicted in a rigged political witch hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG! They searched my house, arrested me, took my mugshot AND NOW THEY JUST CONVICTED ME!” the message on the website read before it was temporarily disabled.
…
After the former president’s campaign website came back online, it was updated to identify him as a political prisoner and to include his mug shot from his Georgia campaign arraignment, along with the words “NEVER SURRENDER.”
Here is the donation page in its “new look”:
Trump’s campaign website has been completely updated pic.twitter.com/cpmQ9aIwCb
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 30, 2024
My colleague at the sister site Hot airEd Morrissey, was kind to Clues a “very long Twitter ‘article,’ a new form of publishing on the platform,” written by tech mogul Shaun Maguire in the wake of the ruling and shared on Thursday – and it will make Biden or progressive Democrats neither ecstatic nor confident about the momentum ahead of this summer’s conventions.
Why is that? His article is in addition to a generous donation of $300,000 to the Donald Trump For President page.
I will only give a few excerpts here; you can read the full article here: the direct X-Link.
Here is the disclaimer Maguire shared at the end, which frames the testimony nicely:
*Note that everything in this post reflects my personal views and not the views of my employer. I work in Silicon Valley, which is traditionally very far left. I’m lucky to work in a place that tolerates lively debate and independent thinking. If the truth lies in the middle, it’s impossible to find it without sharing our ideas and debating with each other.
But Shaun Maguire opened his speech with this astonishing introduction: “I just gave Trump $300,000. I’m prepared to lose friends. And this is why.”
He continued:
In 2016, I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was terrified of Trump, so I donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and voted for her.
In 2020, I was disillusioned and didn’t vote – I didn’t like either option.
I believe this will be one of the most crucial elections of my lifetime in 2024, and I support Trump.
I know I will lose friends because of this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me like they have done with so many others before me. But despite all of this, I still believe it is the right thing to do.
I refuse to live in a society where people are afraid to speak.
In addition to this surprising move, Maguire admitted “something provocative”: he still believes the story of Russian collusion in 2016 (sort of). He wrote, among other things:
I’m going to start with something provocative, but I think it leads to a different perspective on the most controversial Trump issue, which is January 6th. So here we go.
I believe the 2016 election was rigged to harm Hillary Clinton and assist Donald Trump.
…
Russia’s (and others’) interference in the 2016 election was nothing up-to-date. It happens in every election, all over the world. Obviously.
But as someone who used to work in national security, I was scared to death of Trump’s election as president, given Russia’s implicit support for him.
I was wrong, and Russia miscalculated. President Trump proved to be a master of foreign policy and particularly tough on Russia.
As Ed Morrissey mentioned in his news article linked above, the article is not exactly compact. But I can’t leave out this part at the end where Maguire masterfully advocates for support for Donald Trump:
Do I agree with Trump on everything? Of course not. The area where I least agree with Republicans is women’s rights. [abortion; although Macguire agrees in another bit of the piece that the law on it should be decided by the states]And I’m sure I will disagree with some of Trump’s policies in the future.
But overall, I think he was surprisingly forward-thinking, like on the border wall. And he was also a masterful negotiator, like on the Abraham Accords.
There is a real chance that President Trump will be convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison. Frankly, that is one of the reasons I support him. I believe our justice system will be used as a weapon against him.
If abortion is your most crucial issue, then I get it, vote for Biden. If any other issue is your most crucial issue, then do your homework and investigate the manipulation I outlined above.
Given the two possibilities, I believe President Trump is by far the stronger candidate. That, too, is something I could not have imagined in 2016.
As one X user said, this bold donation could be just the beginning of the dam breaking in Silicon Valley:
After Biden’s disastrous presidency, Trump has many supporters in Silicon Valley; many are just afraid to admit it. But with every brave act like this, the dam begins to break. https://t.co/UcQHNikQlP
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) May 30, 2024
