Billionaire Trump donor Woody Johnson, who attended a Palm Beach fundraiser Saturday for the indicted former president, gushed over the GOP’s 2024 nominee on Monday, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that he is not only “extremely funny” but “extremely compassionate.”
Johnson, whom Trump rewarded for his financial support in 2016 with an ambassadorship the following year, was asked to describe the fundraiser, which a Trump aide claimed to Politico brought in a hefty $50 million sum.
Johnson claimed the event, in which Trump vowed to keep billionaires’ taxes low, was “unbelievable,” and pointed out that the reported $50 million haul was about twice what President Joe Biden–accompanied by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton– reaped through a Manhattan fundraiser last week.
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The one hundred or so attendees, Johnson added, were “very appreciative of what Trump is giving up to do this, to save America.”
When asked what Trump told him and the other donors, Johnson didn’t relent on praise for the former president.
“I think it was one of the best speeches. You know, each one gets better and better,” Johnson said, rehashing some of the same points that appear in Trump’s campaign speeches. Trump will be “a lot better” in a second term, Johnson argued, “because he knows what he’s doing now.”
Johnson then described what he believed the former president’s character to be.
“He’s extremely compassionate, and people don’t know that. He’s extremely funny; I think people are starting to appreciate his sense of humor,” claimed the New York Jets owner, who gave a pro-Trump super PAC $1 million last April and has since been working to get other billionaires on the same page.
“And he just impressed all of us once again, and I think the overwhelming thought was that this is just the beginning for us, and everybody in the room was ready to step up hard,” he added.
Trump, who is facing defamation and bank fraud judgments, growing legal bills and a campaign to run, has resorted to selling sneakers and Bibles.
Meanwhile, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump has said that “every single penny” of donations will go toward her father-in-law’s re-election bid.
