President Trump is becoming the PT Barnum of his day, and the crazy conspiracy theories and racist rants he pushes to his legions of sycophants is his circus.
Somehow, someway, Trump has convinced his followers that his campaign needs donations to fight to pay for appeals in states where he and everyone around him continue to claim voter fraud despite any evidence of voter fraud.
There is no voter fraud but that hasn’t stopped Trump from claiming it and creating a fight with shadows that don’t exist. And you know what he needs to win the fight against the air? Money. Always money.
The self-proclaimed billionaire has no coins.
To hear Trump tell it, the election is being stolen from him (from us) and the only way to stop the thieves is with cash. So there have been countless emails sent out to his supporters (I know because someone signed me up to his email list as a burn and it’s turned out to be a great resource) for a reported “Election Defense Fund” in an election that has shown no voter fraud.
But the whole thing is bullshit.
From the New York Times:
In reality, the fine print shows that the first 75 percent of every contribution currently goes to a new political action committee that Mr. Trump set up in mid-November, Save America, which can be used to fund his political activities going forward, including staff and travel. The other 25 percent of each donation is directed to the Republican National Committee.
A donor has to give $5,000 to Mr. Trump’s new PAC before any funds go to his recount account.
Still, the Trump campaign continues to urgently ask for cash. On Monday, Mr. Trump signed a campaign email that breathlessly told supporters that the end of November — nearly four weeks after Election Day — represented “our most IMPORTANT deadline EVER.”
In less than four weeks, Trump has raised $170 million and this is coming from a man who lost an election. That number is so large that it rivaled Trump’s highest donations at the peak of his campaign and it turns out that a good portion of the money has been spent paying off old campaign debt, and the remaining money will be spent on his bullshit life after he’s evicted from the White House.
And because the campaign is sheisty AF, there is a prechecked box for continuing contributions taken straight from donors’ accounts monthly, and I say good for them. Anyone who donates to this heartless roadside performer deserves everything that comes with it.
Rob Flaherty, who served as President-elect Joe Biden’s digital director took to Twitter to call Trump’s solicitation of donations a “plain and simple grift.” But when has Trump ever let name-calling stand in the way of stealing money?