This Washington Post story is full of examples of how extreme rhetoric turns on the spigot of small donations. This isn’t surprising; as I’ve noted, in the days of direct mail, consultants also understood that extreme rhetoric was a key to unlocking donations (Richard Vigurie, the architect of direct mail fundraising, told Jimmy Carter it would never work for him because he was too moderate).

The incendiary emails are part of a concerted strategy that has allowed the campaign to erase a financial lead that President Biden’s campaign had opened up in recent months, according to people close to the former president who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak for the campaign. But experts in small-dollar fundraising say the solicitations are aggressive even by the standards of Trump’s frequently hyperbolic and inflammatory language.

“I think those are clearly an escalation over and above some incredibly heated rhetoric and some irresponsible rhetoric we’ve seen over time,” said Matthew Hindman, a professor at George Washington University who studies digital emails. “The fact that those messages continue to be sent out tell us about something. The rhetoric has been driven by user response and user donations. If this extreme rhetoric continues to generate funds, it’s going to be rewarded with an even more extreme response next time.”…

Aides are planning an aggressive push around the sentencing, advisers said, betting his supporters will be especially motivated by a potential prison sentence….

One person with knowledge of the pitches said donations increase any time Trump seems to be under attack or argues that he is being treated unfairly. That’s particularly true when he is generating wall-to-wall news coverage during an event like the hush money trial in New York.

Some recent pitches have raised eyebrows even among longtime Trump observers and advisers. Emails falsely claimed that the FBI wanted to shoot Trump during a court-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida for classified documents he allegedly unlawfully retained after leaving office. “Put Biden on Trial,” one read…

“Rhetorical gimmicks like this poison the well for every other Republican trying to raise money online,” one GOP consultant said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “It burns out small-dollar donors. The Trump campaign is printing money on this, but when you’re already talking about the death penalty in June, what are you going to say in October?”

Hindman said the campaign is unlikely to dial back its rhetoric as long as the money was flowing.