Holy Victimization, Batman. If Donald Trump’s supporters can stay his supporters after this one, there is no hope whatsoever for these people. This is beyond the pale. Trump’s campaign set up recurring donations by default, wherein contributors were automatically opted in and in order to opt out they had to wade through fine print and manually uncheck a box. That’s bad enough, but the campaign also introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Bottom line, Trump was bleeding his supporters dry, in some cases creating a financial crisis in the lives of people who already were in crisis. New York Times:
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 Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr.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.”
BINGO! And it got worse.
“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. […]
In effect, the money that Mr. Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race.
This is their hero, the guy whom they tout as the massive business success, who so generously donated his salary as part of his selfless service to the country, and he’s a fraudster scheming millions of dollars in interest-free loan money. Wake up, wake up.
Harry Brignull, a user-experience designer in London who coined the term “dark patterns” for manipulative digital marketing practices, said the Trump team’s techniques were a classic of the “deceptive design” genre.
“It should be in textbooks of what you shouldn’t do,” he said.
Political strategists, digital operatives and campaign finance experts said they could not recall ever seeing refunds at such a scale. Mr. Trump, the R.N.C. and their shared accounts refunded far more money to online donors in the last election cycle than every federal Democratic candidate and committee in the country combined.
Over all, the Trump operation refunded 10.7 percent of the money it raised on WinRed in 2020; the Biden operation’s refund rate on ActBlue, the parallel Democratic online donation-processing platform, was 2.2 percent, federal records show.
I wonder if these people will ever seriously wake up and smell the coffee?
I almost wish I could care. As it stands, they thoroughly deserve Trump.
I’m with you … imagine believing Lush Rimbaugh in the first place? Then donating money to a self-styled billionaire, when you’re seriously ill and legally poor? Gullible doesn’t even come close.
The Orange monster said “You knew I was a snake when you took me in”. And it’s cult should have known it right off. If they do not realize it now, no they will probably never “wake up and smell the coffee”, or is that Covefe? All the more reason to cut off the Limbaugh clones from spewing more lies and disinformation!
None of these people should be allowed to reproduce!
What is “legally poor?” Is that like legally blind? Seriously, I’ve never heard that term before.
People on Medicaid, who have to be desperately poor, to the point of not having a reliable car.
Step right up…the world’s best grape juice!!! Sign here. And here. And here. And here. “Now for your lession in turkish, ‘booorder”. Fireside Theatre
Ok,so you saying,people that lived on a fix income donated a large amount of money,they needed. NOW THAT SOUNDS STUPID. Really,who would do that. FUNNY!
Why would the auto drafts to the actual campaign allow someone to contribute way over the legal limit? Should they shut off after $2600 or whatever the limit is now?
You make it sound like he ever cared about being caught.