Trump donated to Kamala Harris’ campaign when she was California’s attorney general

Long before former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris were barreling toward a potential presidential showdown in November, Trump was one of her donors.

Trump donated $6,000 to Harris’ campaign after she had begun her career in statewide politics as California’s attorney general, taking office in January 2011. Trump’s first donation, for $5,000, came in September 2011, and he made an additional $1,000 contribution in February 2013, according to state records.

His daughter, Ivanka, also gave Harris’ campaign $2,000 in 2014, according to records first reported by The Sacramento Bee.

A spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, dismissed the donations, saying Monday that, at the time they were given, “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.”

Trump’s donations also came at a time when he was facing a class-action lawsuit into whether Trump University had bilked students. Harris’ office never took action against the entity; officials working for Harris said at the time the donations had nothing to do with that lack of action.

Harris officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Harris, whose values have been shaped as much by California’s tough-on-crime 1990s as by the Bay Area’s progressive politics, has long been a draw for Democratic donors. She raised more than $50 million in less than 24 hours after entering the 2024 race for president Sunday, her campaign said, as Democrats welcomed her candidacy with one of the greatest gushers of cash of all time.