Biden v Trump: US election campaign comes to London

The Trump and Biden campaigns threw duelling fundraisers in London this week. Trump’s was hosted by the Australian actress and singer Holly Valance, wife of the billionaire property developer Nick Candy. Tortoise understands the Reform leader Nigel Farage and Nurali Aliyev – a Kazakh businessman with family ties to the former president Nazarbayev – both attended the event to see Donald Trump Jr speak. Attendance cost $10,000 with an additional $50,000 per couple for dinner. The rival Biden event, hosted by Vogue’s Anna Wintour, was a more modest affair at $1,000 a head. According to US campaign finance law only American citizens or residents were allowed to pay for attendance. Trump’s event made at least $2 million – a relatively small sum compared with the $141 million he raised in May alone. Separately, Forbes says he’s earned $4.6 million by charging the Secret Service and his own campaign for using his properties and plane.