D21 President Fred Wertheimer On Trump’s “Rip-Off” Fundraising Scheme
From his Mar-A-Lago bunker and super-spreader rallies, Donald Trump continues to spread his Big Lie about the presidential election being stolen from him. Trump is fomenting dangerous distrust of our democracy and triggering Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country to enact voter suppression and election subversion laws.
And, while Trump continues to stir up his base, he also continues to financially rip them off.
The New York Times, Salon, and other news outlets outlets that, despite backlash this spring that spurred investigations by Attorneys General in four states, Trump continues to use deceptive tactics in his aggressive online fundraising. Trump is masking pre-checked boxes in the payment process that has led donors to unknowingly opt-in to automatic recurring donations on a monthly – sometimes even a weekly – basis.
The New York Times reported that Trump and the Republican Party returned $12.8 million to donors in the first half of this year following complaints from donors about the pre-checked boxes. “The refunds were some of the biggest outlays that Mr. Trump made in 2021 as he has built up his $102 million political war chest — and amounted to roughly 20 percent of the $56 million he and his committees raised online so far this year,” The Times reported on Saturday.
The contribution refunds, the AG investigations, and a recommendation by the FEC that such practices be banned, Salon reported on Friday, haven’t stopped Trump’s deceptive fundraising practices. In fact, Salon’s investigation “reveals that dozens of other Republican candidates and organizations now rely on pre-checked boxes to keep the money flowing, so much so that it can essentially be regarded as standard operating procedure on conservative fundraising.”
This is a scam, plain and simple, designed to trick donors into making multiple contributions they had no intention to give.
Trump and other Republicans using this deception know exactly what they’re doing. In particular, it affects the elderly who are most likely to make multiple contributions without recognizing the deceptions Trump and Republican fundraisers are sneaking into their online fundraising.
The New York Times reports that ActBlue, the Democrat’s online fundraising platform, no longer allows the use of the pre-checked recurring donation box.
This Trump grift fits his longtime business MO: take unfair advantage of people and when you get caught – for example, when a donor realizes they’re being ripped-off – refund the money to that donor, but continue the grift.
A similar problem occurred in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign when Trump and his campaign committee illegally solicited contributions from foreign individuals all over the world, including foreign parliamentarians.
Democracy 21 filed complaints with the FEC and the Justice Department charging that Trump’s solicitation of foreign nationals was flatly illegal. Trump and the campaign, however, after being confronted with their illegal fundraising, ignored the complaints and kept on illegally soliciting foreign contributions.
Trump’s improper fundraising scheme is yet one more reason why the fundamental campaign finance reforms, including strengthened FEC enforcement, in the For The People Act are so urgently needed. In addition, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently introduced legislation to ban the use of pre-checked recurring donation boxes in political fundraising.
Meanwhile, Trump’s rip-off of his own loyal supporters continues. As Trump continues to jockey for power and scam his donors, it’s essential to stay vigilant to his dangerous rhetoric and deceptive practices. The Trump fundraising grift must be ended once and for all.
