Last month, we noted a July 22 WaPo article that looked at the Trumpist political action committee "Save America PAC" and its fundraising activities versus what it said the contributions would go toward. Unsurprisingly, they found that the PAC was raking in millions for conducting "audits" of votes similar Arizona's fraudit, but hadn't spent a fraction of those millions. Instead, the funds were going to pay for Dear Leader's travel and legal expenses, among other unrelated things.
Updating that information, the Guardian's Peter Stone writes today that Trump's use of setbacks to raise funds is a familiar story of bait-and-switch:
"Donald Trump’s penchant for turning his political and legal troubles into fundraising schemes has long been recognized, but the former US president’s money hustling tricks seem to have expanded since his defeat by Joe Biden, prompting new scrutiny and criticism from campaign finance watchdogs and legal analysts.
Critics note Trump has built an arsenal of political committees and nonprofit groups, staffed with dozens of ex-administration officials and loyalists, which seem aimed at sustaining his political hopes for a comeback, and exacting revenge on Republican congressional critics. These groups have been aggressive in raising money through at times misleading appeals to the party base which polls show share Trump’s false views he lost the White House due to fraud." (our emphasis)
Using inexpensive but effective tools of text messaging and e-mails, they reach the large cult following and rake in tens of millions on false promises of how the money would be used:
"Just days after his defeat last November, Trump launched a new political action committee, dubbed Save America, that together with his campaign and the Republican National Committee quickly raked in tens of millions of dollars through text and email appeals for a Trump “election defense fund”, ostensibly to fight the results with baseless lawsuits alleging fraud.
The fledgling Pac had raised a whopping $31.5m by year’s end, but Save America spent nothing on legal expenses in this same period, according to public records. Run by Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Save America only spent $340,000 on fundraising expenses last year." (our emphasis)
The whole article is well worth a read for a richer understanding of the scam. As Common Cause's Paul S. Ryan notes in the article:
“Donald Trump is a one-man scam PAC. Bait-and-switch is among his favorite fundraising tactics.”
For Dear Leader, there's a sucker born every minute ready, and seemingly willing, to be scammed by him.
(photo: Mother Jones illustration / Michael Brochstein, Getty Images)
