FIRST ON FOX: Longtime Democrat fundraiser and Kamala Harris critic Lindy Li was named this month to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fundraising committee, an about-face that she says has been met with overwhelming support from donors, including from some longtime contributors to the Democratic Party vying to get a spot at the table.
Li’s appointment to the Trump fundraising committee was previewed exclusively to Fox News Digital. It comes just weeks after Li announced her decision to leave the Democratic Party last month, citing what she described as its broader culture of finger-pointing, vitriol and blame in the aftermath of the 2024 elections.
Li herself endured a torrent of criticism and calls to exit the party after she criticized certain spending decisions made by Harris’s campaign, despite having raised millions on its behalf and donating several Philadelphia-area buildings to the campaign. She in turn voiced concerns about party leadership “permitting no dissent, no criticism” and failing to learn from their wide losses in the House, Senate and presidential elections.
For Li, her departure from the DNC’s national fundraising committee has been an eye-opening one. She told Fox News in an interview this week that she was approved as a member of Trump’s inaugural fundraising committee just three days before many of the events reached capacity, forcing the committee to block access, if only for the near-term, in hopes of securing a bigger venue.
When she told the donors that they were at capacity, she noted, some responded by doubling their offer in hopes of gaining access.
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“The demand has just been unprecedented,” Li said of the response from donors. “Honestly, Biden and Harris never had this issue. They never had to turn people away.”
Fox News Digital was told that donors offering as much as $1 million to the inaugural committee have been turned away due to space limitations, as first reported by the New York Times. Since then, the inaugural committee said they are working to find a bigger location for some of the events in order to meet the intense and growing demand.
To date, Trump’s inaugural committee has raised a record-shattering $170 million in donations, with proceeds used to fund both the inauguration weekend and longer-term projects, such as a presidential library.
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For donors, their contribution earns them access to an inauguration weekend agenda of highly exclusive VIP events before the Inauguration Day ceremony, including intimate dinners, black-tie galas and sit-downs with Cabinet nominees. It’s an opportunity to make inroads and gain influence in an incoming administration.
And ahead of Trump’s second term, many are shelling out big-time to do so.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are all among the tech executives who announced within the past month that they plan to donate at least $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
For Li, a prominent fundraiser whose experience is largely rooted in the Democrat world, pivoting to raising money for Trump’s inauguration has been easier than expected.
Li formerly served as a member of the DNC’s national fundraising committee, a membership that requires raising “millions of dollars” on behalf of Democrat candidates.
Still, she said, the inaugural committee donations and enthusiasm surrounding them feels unprecedented.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Li said in an interview of the funding raised, which could roughly triple the amount raised by Biden in 2021 and exceeds Trump’s first inaugural committee, which raised roughly $117 million.
The committee is expecting donations to climb higher to upwards of $200 million, according to estimates shared with Fox News Digital.
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Asked whether it was difficult to build out a base of Republican donors less than a month after leaving the Democratic Party, Li told Fox News that she is dealing with many of the same financial contributors.
“These are Democratic donors,” she said.
While Li noted they aren’t among the most liberal Democrat donors she has worked with, “They’re still donating,” she said.
“They’re still so eager and willing to come to the table.”
Many, she said, share in the belief that Trump has been “great for the business community” and hope to build on that in future conversations with the administration.
And even donors who have been wait-listed or turned down from attending the VIP events during the inaugural weekend due to the lack of space have expressed interest in working with the administration in the future.
Just yesterday, she said, a donor noted, “‘You know, even if we can’t can’t come this time, please let us know the next time that we can show our support.'”
The reception as a whole has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Li said of the response from donors. “The enthusiasm is just through the stratosphere.”
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