Donations to Trump and Biden on the rise after debate

What the reports clearly show is that several major super PACs allied with Trump currently have large budgets. Biden, on the other hand, is experiencing a delicate moment: some of the party's donors are threatening to cut off funding if the 81-year-old doesn't drop out.

The Preserve America PAC, which plans to raise tens of millions of dollars to air pro-Trump TV ads, received an initial $5 million donation from casino queen, billionaire Miriam Adelson, majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands.

America PAC - recently created and funded by several wealthy tech entrepreneurs from Musk's social circle - raised $8.75 million in the second quarter. Among the donors were Joseph W. Craft III, chairman and CEO of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners, Silicon Valley investor Douglas M. Leone, and former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, who wrote multimillion-dollar cheques, along with Joe Lonsdale's Lonsdale Enterprises, partner of venture capital firm 8VC and founder of Palantir. Musk himself said he will donate $45 million a month to the PAC.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated $500,000 to Trump.

Super PAC Make America Great Again (MAGA) Inc. said it raised more than $100 million in the second quarter. Taylor Budowich, the group's CEO, wrote on social media that it had raised another $50 million on Monday, the first day of the GOP convention where Trump announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice president. MAGA Inc.'s number one donor is billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Pittsburgh banking family.

The Patriot Legal Defense Fund, created to help Trump and his allies pay legal fees, raised $2.6 million and spent about $900,000 in the second quarter of the year, according to a statement this week. Compared to previous quarters, most of the funds came from contributions of less than $200.

In early July, the Biden campaign announced it had raised $264 million in the second quarter through coordinated political committees, including $127 million in June alone. The campaign also claimed to have raised $38 million on debate night and the following weekend. But many Democrats fear small donors will slow down in the face of wavering voter confidence in Biden.

In the seven most competitive races for Senate seats, Democratic candidates picked up more than likely Republican rivals in the second quarter. This reflects the determination of Democratic donors to ensure they can check Trump's power in Congress should he win another term in the White House.

Four Democratic candidates for the Senate raised twice as much or more than their likely Republican opponents. One of them, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, raised more than three times as much as her likely Republican opponent, former Congressman Mike Rogers.

But the main Republican super PAC involved in Senate races, the Senate Leadership Fund, raised more than its Democratic counterpart in the second quarter. with $60.2 million. In contrast, the Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic super PAC in the Senate races, raised $44.3 million. At the moment, however, the Senate Majority PAC is still ahead, with a total of $124.3 million, compared to the Senate Leadership Fund's $117 million.