Donald Trump and Joe Biden campaigns set for duelling London fundraisers

Brexit champion Nigel Farage and fashion icon Anna Wintour will be at rival fundraising events for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in London this week as the battle for the US presidency crosses the Atlantic.

Donald Trump Jr and his fiancée and former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle will on Wednesday be at a Republican event organised by Holly Valance, the former Australian soap star turned rightwing political activist, alongside her husband, the British property tycoon Nick Candy. 

Trump Jr, the former US president’s son, is looking to tap right-leaning wealthy Americans in London for campaign donations, as the Trump campaign tries to close a big funding gap opened by Biden in the 2024 money race.

“After the bogus conviction of my father, we have seen an explosion in financial support from American citizens across the globe, who are rejecting Joe Biden’s attempt to use the courts to interfere in the presidential election. I’m excited to see my friends in London who are all ready to Make America Great Again this November,” he said in a statement.

Biden’s campaign will hold a rival fundraiser in London on the same day, hosted by Wintour, the British-born editor-in-chief of US Vogue.

Wintour, who also endorsed Biden during his 2020 campaign, hosted another fundraiser for the US president in March during Paris Fashion Week.

Tickets for the Trump event cost up to $100,000 with invitees including Reform party leader Farage and Lord Matthew Elliott, former chief executive of Brexit campaign group Vote Leave. Former UK prime minister Liz Truss was also invited but a spokesperson said she would not attend. 

Duke Buchan, Trump’s ambassador to Spain and the finance chair of the Republican National Committee, organised the event, which is the first Trump fundraiser outside the US during this year’s presidential campaign.

The event shows the close link between right-leaning conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic, with Farage playing a key role. When asked whether he would be at the event, the Brexit champion said it would “be very odd if I wasn’t”.

Buchan described the fundraiser as “unprecedented” and cited the “special relationship” between the US and UK as the reason the Trump campaign chose London.

Only US citizens will be able to donate to the campaign, and co-hosts will include former US ambassadors to Portugal, Germany, Switzerland and the UK — George Glass, Ric Grenell, Ed McMullen and Woody Johnson — along with Cantor Fitzgerald chair Howard Lutnick and food producer Ken LaGrande, according to an invitation obtained by the Financial Times.

Scott Bessent, the US investor seen as a potential candidate for Treasury secretary in a Trump administration, is also co-hosting.

The fundraiser has already raised $2mn through ticket sales and donations, according to two people close to the organisers, with more expected to be given on the night. “It will be the most ever raised for Trump from a UK fundraiser,” they said.

Valance has emerged as a well-connected rightwing political advocate over the past year and has several friends in the Trump campaign. She and her husband attended a dinner with Donald Trump and Farage at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in April 2022.

“Its Holly’s party — her show. She feels very strongly about giving her support to the family. Holly can help them across the world,” the person said. 

In an interview with GB News this year, she praised Trump and described environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg as a “demonic little gremlin high priestess of climatism”.

Valance is also campaigning for Farage in his bid to be elected as an MP for his Reform party in the UK general election on July 4, said a person familiar with the matter.

Elliott, who was given a peerage in Truss’s resignation honours list, did not deny that he was going to the event. He is married to Sarah Elliott, who is spokesperson for Republicans Overseas UK.

Trump’s London event follows big fundraisers in Silicon Valley and New York, as the former president tries to close Biden’s huge campaign cash lead.

Trump, who became the first ex-president to be convicted of a felony earlier this month, has used much of the money raised by his campaign to pay legal bills stemming from a string of criminal cases — including two relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 US election.

“Trump is on a roll in fundraising,” said Bessent, a co-host of the London event. “He’s going to project strength and not weakness.”

Have your say

Joe Biden vs Donald Trump: tell us how the 2024 US election will affect you