Joe Biden raised “over $15 million” in donations to his re-election campaign from wealthy donors in Los Angeles over the weekend, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Monday.

According to a section of the American press, no president or presidential candidate has ever raised so much money visiting the metropolis of American cinema, although it is generally generous to Democratic candidates.

The US president held several meetings on Friday and Saturday night.

Although what was said at some of his meetings in the hills around Los Angeles remains strictly confidential, reporters had access to two campaign fund-raising dinners for the 81-year-old Democratic president, which showcased his work but mostly unleashed attack on the one he may face again in November 2024 — his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

On Friday night, in the sprawling courtyard of a luxury country home, with director Steven Spielberg in the audience, before a private concert by Lenny Kravitz, Mr Biden said:The biggest threat Trump represents is to our democracy, because if we lose it we lose everything.”

“The other day, he said he wants to be a dictator for a day, to eliminate civil servants and do other things,” while “encouraging political violence instead of rejecting it,” and “we can’t allow” him to become president again , he emphasized.

“I can’t believe that this nation, which has been a symbol of freedom and equality for the whole world, would turn to Trump on its 250th anniversary,” he said the next day, referring to the anniversary of the 1776 declaration of independence.

Joe Biden has long avoided attacking his predecessor head-on, who, barring the unexpected, will find himself in front of him again next November. However, the Democrat, who is doing poorly in the polls and does not seem to be capitalizing politically on his performance in the field of economic policy, now seems to be choosing to attack much more directly.

The 2024 campaign is being announced as the most expensive in the history of the US, a country that is, however, accustomed to astronomical spending in the run-up to elections.

According to a GroupM forecast cited by the news website Axios, political advertising in general will be spent as much as $16 billion, mostly on TV and online. If the estimate is verified, it will be an amount increased by 30% compared to 2020.