Star-Studded Biden Fundraiser Exposes the Celebrity Gap Between the President and Trump

President Biden is due at New York Thursday for a glitzy fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall featuring Presidents Obama and Clinton and a host of celebrity guests, drawing a stark contrast to President Trump’s court-centric campaign schedule.The incumbent president will touch down at the Big Apple for an evening featuring performances by pop superstar Lizzo, singer Ben Plat, rapper Queen Latifah, and a conversation involving Messrs. Biden, Obama, Clinton, and a comedian, Stephen Colbert. The finance chairman of the Biden Victory Fund, Chris Korge, told NBC News that a photo with all three presidents would be taken by a celebrity photographer, Annie Leibovitz, and be available for $100,000. Tickets to the event start at $250. Mr. Korge said the fundraiser is expected to raise upward of $10 million.The star-studded fundraiser draws a stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s latest money-making scheme — hawking Bibles with country singer Lee Greenwood.Copies of the Trump Bible go for $60 a pop and feature a copy of the chorus to Mr. Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” as well as the full texts of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance.“All Americans need a Bible in their home and I have many, it’s my favorite book. It’s a lot of people’s favorite book,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Tuesday.Mr. Trump enjoys a handful of other high-profile supporters, like comedian Roseanne Barr, actor John Voight, and musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Other high-profile Republican celebrities, like Governor Schwarzenegger, have publicly broken with Mr. Trump.While celebrities might help politicians in drumming up campaign cash, it’s not clear that celebrity endorsements carry much weight with voters.A survey on the topic from the Hill and HarrisX found that 65 percent of respondents said that celebrity endorsements have no bearing on their voting decisions and 11 percent said that a celebrity endorsement made them more likely to vote a certain way.Another 24 percent of respondents said a celebrity endorsement made them less likely to vote for a particular candidate. Republicans were also much more hostile to celebrity endorsements than Democrats, with 38 percent of GOP respondents saying a celebrity endorsement made them less likely to vote for a candidate compared to 14 percent of Democrats.Mr. Biden’s big event Thursday also stands to potentially widen an already growing fundraising gap between the two presidents.The latest Federal Elections Commission filings show that Mr. Biden’s campaign is outraising Mr. Trump’s, with Mr. Biden’s campaign having $71 million in cash on hand to Mr. Trump’s $33.5 million.The event for Mr. Biden also draws a contrast to Mr. Trump’s own campaign schedule or lack thereof. Since becoming the official presumptive nominee more than two weeks ago, Mr. Trump has held only one rally, in support of the GOP nominee for Senate in Ohio, Bernie Moreno.As it stands, Mr. Trump also has no events on his campaign’s official schedule. Mr. Biden, for comparison, just wrapped up a tour of the Southwest. Mr. Biden’s surrogates have already drawn attention to the comparison.“We are two weeks into the general election, and Donald Trump can’t raise money, is hiding at his country club, and is letting convicts and conspiracy theorists take over his campaign,” a spokesman for Mr. Biden’s campaign, Ammar Mousa, told the Associated Press.In April, Mr. Trump’s campaign schedule will hit another tangle, with a trial over his alleged falsification of business records set to start on April 15 at Manhattan.While the schedule is up in the air, the former president could also face three other trials between now and the general election, all of which could stand to hamper his campaigning and fundraising efforts.

Star-Studded Biden Fundraiser Exposes the Celebrity Gap Between the President and Trump

More from the New York Sun

Hillary Clinton’s Epstein Deposition Is Paused After GOP Lawmaker Leaks Photo to Conservative Podcaster

Bill O’Reilly To Sub In for NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, Vows To ‘Bring Back’ the Format of ‘The O’Reilly Factor’

27-Year-Old Man Arrested for Assault on NYPD, Despite Mamdani Calling Participants ‘Kids at a Snowball Fight’

More from the New York Sun

Hillary Clinton’s Epstein Deposition Is Paused After GOP Lawmaker Leaks Photo to Conservative Podcaster

Bill O’Reilly To Sub In for NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, Vows To ‘Bring Back’ the Format of ‘The O’Reilly Factor’

27-Year-Old Man Arrested for Assault on NYPD, Despite Mamdani Calling Participants ‘Kids at a Snowball Fight’

Jewish Groups Sue California Charging ‘Unchecked Antisemitism’ in State’s Public School System

Medicaid Spent Over $100 Million in Five Years on Gender Treatments and Surgeries for Minors, Government Investigator Finds

World Economic Forum Chief Resigns After Investigation Into Epstein Links

Kim Jong Un Teases Another Summit With Trump, But Rules Out Giving Up His Nukes

Carville Trashes Trump But Maybe Carville Should Sit This One Out