How Trump’s PAC misled unsuspecting donors (again)

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The name of Donald Trump’s leadership PAC is intended to achieve its goal: Save America. In other words, the public believes that the former president is not only raising money through his political action committee, the entity is also a vessel through which the Republican will save the United States.

To that end, the group has repeatedly reached out to donors, claiming that Trump is actually working to protect their vote. A recent online ad said, “We need you to join the fight to SECURE OUR VALUE!”

Of course, in political fundraising, “join the fight” is a pleasant euphemism for “sending money.”

Followers of the former president have done exactly that, even as the Washington Post reported, the money Team Trump received does not fund any fight associated with securing any election.

Former president Donald Trump’s PAC raised nearly $ 75 million in the first half of this year as he dispelled the misconception that the 2020 election was stolen from him, but the group has not allocated funds to help finance the ongoing ballot review in Arizona or to push similar efforts to other states, according to people familiar with finance.

To be sure, the Republican took keen interest in various post-election efforts, including the utterly ridiculous “audit” in Arizona, but he just didn’t want to devote any of the money he had accumulated to efforts.

All of this leads to an obvious question: If Trump’s PAC raised approximately $ 75 million in the first six months of the year, where would all that money go? According to the Post report, Save America’s PAC leadership paid “some of the former president’s travel, legal and staff costs, along with other costs.”

Most of the money, in the meantime, just sits in the bank, likely to pay for Trump’s future travel, legal and staff costs, along with other costs.

If it’s not clearly familiar, there’s a good reason for that. In December, almost a month after Election Day 2020, Politico ran this memorable report:

President Donald Trump has been on a relentless, misleading and highly lucrative fundraising drive since losing the election, telling supporters they can help topple the results if they donate while directing the majority of cash in his latest political group rather than entities fighting in court.

In case anyone needs a refresh, in the month following the 2020 election, Trump’s operation fueled an avalanche of lies about the Republican defeat, telling unsuspecting donors that the their money will go to challenge election results that the former president wrongly said were illegal. The pitches have been very successful, at least they raise an enormous amount of money.

But this is the latest in a series of Trump lifts: contributors ’money isn’t going toward pointless re-reporting, silly audits, and bad lawsuits. Instead, most of the funds went to the Save America PAC – campaign finance experts deride as “essentially a kind of slush fund, with some restrictions on how the money they raise can be spent.”

Or put another way, Team Trump suggested to donors that their contributions would go to “defense” throughout the Republican vote, this is effective fraud.

It happened while Trump was in position. Now that he’s out of the office, he’s doing the same thing, pulling the same trick on his followers twice.

Just as striking is the twisted set of incentives: once Trump stops lying about his defeat it’s time to lose this lucrative cash cow. Many have long assumed his election lies were about his ego, but these details suggest that it is also about his wallet.

There was a parlor game in some political circles, with observers wondering if Trump, in his heart of hearts, realized he had lost. Some argue that he is truly foolish, convincing himself that the truth is meaningless, while others argue that the former president is more of a manly man, sulking foolishly because he sees his followers. as fools and suckers.

This is an interesting debate, but this new reporting suggests that resolving the question is not entirely relevant: whatever Trump’s true beliefs, his apparent priority is ensuring that his followers continues to send him their money. The method works – again.

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