Donald Trump and Kamala Harris seem destined to be rivals over the course of the next three-and-a-half months, but there was a time, not so long ago, when Trump was a backer of Harris.
Records from California’s Secretary of State show that Trump donated twice to Harris’s campaign to be elected and reelected attorney general of that state. His daughter, Ivanka, also donated to her reelection campaign. Trump initially wrote a $5,000 check to the first Harris campaign on September 26, 2011; he then made a second donation on February 20, 2013, for $1,000. Ivanka donated $2,000 in June 2014.
The donations from Trump came at the same time he was promoting the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. Harris donated the $6,000 Trump donated to a nonprofit advocating for civil and human rights for Central Americans in 2015, a spokesperson told The Sacramento Bee in 2020.
It’s unclear what Harris did with the donation from Ivanka Trump.
Trump has not addressed the donation directly, but did say in a 2016 campaign speech that he has a long history of donating to a wide variety of candidates.
“It’s interesting: I was looking at the ones I’m running against. I’ve contributed to most of them. Can you believe it?” the Washington Examiner quoted Trump as saying. “I’ve given to Democrats. I’ve given to Hillary. I’ve given to everybody! Because that was my job. I gotta give to them. Because when I want something, I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Fast Company, “At that time, some 15 years ago, President Trump was a global businessman and knew how to play the game and win the game with corrupt politicians like Kamala Harris. Now he’s going to finish the job of throwing all these crooked politicians out of office.”
Harris was elected attorney general in 2011 and reelected in 2014, serving until 2017, when she was sworn into the U.S. Senate.
News of Trump’s donation came under the spotlight Sunday after Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida posted a picture of Trump’s check to Harris on X (formerly Twitter).
Trump may not be likely to donate any more to Harris, his likely rival in the 2024 election, but plenty of other people are. In the first 24 hours, the Harris campaign reported having raised a record-breaking $81 million. And while major donors who had previously paused their contributions to Biden, including Abigail Disney, now reportedly are planning to resume giving.
While Harris is the frontrunner and has the backing of Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, that doesn’t mean her nomination as the party’s candidate is a sure thing. Other candidates could challenge her for the Democratic nomination, which won’t be officially decided until mid-August, either just prior to or during the Democratic Convention.
Harris has said she intends to “earn and win” the nomination.
Update, July 22, 2024: This article has been updated with a statement from the Trump campaign.