Trump Campaign Donations (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

This really belongs in the daily trump tracker thread but since it’s closed

this guy
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Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.

What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”

But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.

The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

“Bandits!” said Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, who made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via WinRed. It recurred seven more times — adding up to almost $8,000. “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”

The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors.

All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time...............

How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations (Published 2021)

Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked. Complaints to banks and credit card companies soared. But the money helped keep Donald Trump’s struggling campaign afloat.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

the majority of people who supported him enough to make donations would never admit he swindled them. they would rather lose thousands than admit it.

 

[DaveXA]

the majority of people who supported him enough to make donations would never admit he swindled them. they would rather lose thousands than admit it.

Probably.

 

[Maxp]

I remember this happening to a man in Pensacola during the campaign. His money was eventually refunded and his reply was something like "could you imagine Biden actually giving your money back?"

 

[MT15]

Here’s the current box, they’re still doing it. This is from Trump’s PAC, WinRed. They aren’t targeting the sharpest tools in the shed are they?

 

[JRad]

Here’s the current box, they’re still doing it. This is from Trump’s PAC, WinRed. They aren’t targeting the sharpest tools in the shed are they?

Holy crap this is real.

 

[brandon]

Here’s the current box, they’re still doing it. This is from Trump’s PAC, WinRed. They aren’t targeting the sharpest tools in the shed are they?

The following things can both be true:

1) Trump is a swindling crook and,
2) People who fall for this deserve it.

 

[samiam5211]

They should confiscate the money to pay for Holiday inns for the immigrant children in our custody.

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

every single one deserve every penny lost.

My wife works for the La Lottery and she gets calls from people who get scammed by fake lottery emails all the time Trump is no better than those people sending those scam emails..

 

[DaveXA]

Yeah, it's real. Just took my own screenshot, lol. This is just sad. Not the site, which is terrible, but people actually making donations to this thing.

 

[Goatman saint]

Yeah, it's real. Just took my own screenshot, lol. This is just sad. Not the site, which is terrible, but people actually making donations to this thing.

Never figured you were a Trump donor and supporter.

 

[DaveXA]

Never figured you were a Trump donor and supporter.

Yeah, someone gotta take one for the team, .

 

[Optimus Prime]

We'll see if it's actually gets banned
===========================

After a New York Times investigation highlighted how former President Donald Trump’s campaign used a shady fundraising tactic — prechecked recurring donation boxes — the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has taken a rare unanimous vote to recommend to Congress that they pass a law banning the practice.

As the Times reported back in early April, during the 2020 election, Trump’s campaign found itself at a cash disadvantage with now-President Joe Biden, and started sending out online fundraising solicitations that made repetitive donations the default option. Some of these were set up to authorize additional donations later in the campaign, some for monthly or even weekly recurring donations. The campaign also sometimes used prechecked boxes to double the donation and made the language and disclaimers complex and confusing.........

The FEC reviewed the issue and voted unanimously, 6-0, to recommend to Congress that they pass a law banning this type of pre-selected repetitive donation. The FEC is evenly split, with 3 Republican appointees and 3 Democrats, and had spent most of the recent years gridlocked on partisan lines. Regarding this specific fundraising tactic, however, the six were all on the same page — including the three Republican commissioners appointed by Trump himself...........

FEC Recommends Ban on Shady Fundraising Tactic Used by Trump: ‘Almost Like Theft’

 

[Optimus Prime]

Well, I hope this is one of those things people don't forget when the 2024 election primaries rolls around if Trump runs again.

It’s already long forgotten and won’t matter when it’s brought up again

 

[Optimus Prime]

I wonder how many were swindled but just didn’t complain to the feds about it? Or didn’t even notice because the recurring amount was small enough to go unnoticed.

I mean $5 a week probably wouldn’t get noticed by a lot of people, but you get 10-20 million of them and it adds up.

And probably would have never been caught and made a boatload of money

But got too greedy

 

[insidejob]

But got too greedy

His fatal flaw.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Yeah, it's real. Just took my own screenshot, lol. This is just sad. Not the site, which is terrible, but people actually making donations to this thing.

There’s nothing between 5K and 36K?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Relentless and aggressive text messages and emails from political campaigns demanding donations are preying upon vulnerable elderly people who have unintentionally given away hundreds of thousands of dollars, an investigation has found.

One man’s life savings account was drained over two years as he fell victim to predatory messages from Republican political groups, CNN found as it looked into the stories behind hundreds of small-dollar donations.

The 80-year-old, who was later diagnosed with dementia, unknowingly donated nearly half a million dollars in the process.

In another case, an 80-year-old woman with lung cancer gave more than $180,000 to the campaigns of Donald Trump and other Republicans, going as far as writing letters to them apologizing for not getting donations in because she was undergoing heart surgery. She died with only $250 in her bank account.

The harrowing stories are just a few of the many that CNN uncovered in its efforts to understand how aggressive campaign marketing tactics impact people.

The probe found that older Americans, especially those living with neurological impairments, have fallen foul of marketing ploys that make it seem as though the candidate is personally communicating with them.

In a number of cases the network also found people unaware that a ‘one off’ donation is actually reoccurring.

Though both campaigns implore these tactics, CNN found that Republican fundraising pages were more likely to use deceptive features and older adults tend to lean more conservative in their voting patterns.

On Trump’s campaign donation page, there is densely packed text in multiple fonts, styles and sizes which make it difficult to read.

A brick of all-caps text asks supporters for “sustained support” in the form of a weekly donation.

But it seems misleading because there is a small line underneath that appears like a hyperlink for donors to click to donate recurring.

It makes it seem like you have to click the small line to donate recurring but it is recurring the entire time.

Areas that are clear to read contain misleading rhetoric, such as two “upsell” boxes that seem like messages coming directly from Trump.

Those can appeal to older adults who are lonely and isolated. An 81-year-old man’s son told CNN his father believed he was in personal communication with Donald Trump Jr. The man gave approximately $80,000 – going into debt in the process.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s donation pageis easier to read with less text and more consistent font and text size.

It contains a large box that makes it very clear to donors that if they click it, their donation will be recurring……..

Fundraising tactics tricking elderly into blowing life savings on political donations

Both the Democratic and Republican parties have been subject to criticisms about incessant messaging with demands for donations

www.independent.co.uk

 

[MT15]

Relentless and aggressive text messages and emails from political campaigns demanding donations are preying upon vulnerable elderly people who have unintentionally given away hundreds of thousands of dollars, an investigation has found.

One man’s life savings account was drained over two years as he fell victim to predatory messages from Republican political groups, CNN found as it looked into the stories behind hundreds of small-dollar donations.

The 80-year-old, who was later diagnosed with dementia, unknowingly donated nearly half a million dollars in the process.

In another case, an 80-year-old woman with lung cancer gave more than $180,000 to the campaigns of Donald Trump and other Republicans, going as far as writing letters to them apologizing for not getting donations in because she was undergoing heart surgery. She died with only $250 in her bank account.

The harrowing stories are just a few of the many that CNN uncovered in its efforts to understand how aggressive campaign marketing tactics impact people.

The probe found that older Americans, especially those living with neurological impairments, have fallen foul of marketing ploys that make it seem as though the candidate is personally communicating with them.

In a number of cases the network also found people unaware that a ‘one off’ donation is actually reoccurring.

Though both campaigns implore these tactics, CNN found that Republican fundraising pages were more likely to use deceptive features and older adults tend to lean more conservative in their voting patterns.

On Trump’s campaign donation page, there is densely packed text in multiple fonts, styles and sizes which make it difficult to read.

A brick of all-caps text asks supporters for “sustained support” in the form of a weekly donation.

But it seems misleading because there is a small line underneath that appears like a hyperlink for donors to click to donate recurring.

It makes it seem like you have to click the small line to donate recurring but it is recurring the entire time.

Areas that are clear to read contain misleading rhetoric, such as two “upsell” boxes that seem like messages coming directly from Trump.

Those can appeal to older adults who are lonely and isolated. An 81-year-old man’s son told CNN his father believed he was in personal communication with Donald Trump Jr. The man gave approximately $80,000 – going into debt in the process.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s donation pageis easier to read with less text and more consistent font and text size.

It contains a large box that makes it very clear to donors that if they click it, their donation will be recurring……..

Fundraising tactics tricking elderly into blowing life savings on political donations

Both the Democratic and Republican parties have been subject to criticisms about incessant messaging with demands for donations

www.independent.co.uk

None of the democratic sites that I have seen pre-check the recurring donation box. None. That article should either show who does it or not make the statement that both campaigns do it. In my experience they do not.