This is pretty amazing, but as often said by Trump supporters, Trump is being smart. How Trump steered supporters into unwitting donations - Chicago Tribune Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald 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 Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell Blatt, 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 Blatt 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 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 2 1/2 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 Joe Biden’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time. The recurring donations swelled Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed. In effect, the money that Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race. ... The unintended payments busted credit card limits. Some donors canceled their cards to avoid recurring payments. Others paid overdraft fees to their bank. ... But for some Trump supporters, like Ron Wilson, WinRed is a scam artist. Wilson, an 87-year-old retiree in Illinois, made a series of small contributions last fall that he thought would add up to about $200; by December, federal records show, WinRed and Trump’s committees had withdrawn more than 70 separate donations from Wilson worth roughly $2,300. “Predatory!” Wilson said of WinRed. Like multiple other donors interviewed, though, he held Trump himself blameless, telling the Times, “I’m 100% loyal to Donald Trump.”
I would love nothing more than to tell these poor, devoted MAGA chumps to “ask Trump to help you get your money back” and deny them the assistance of any legal authorities but that’s not how it works. in any case, their continued devotion to such a total con man should definitely make us all rethink the concept that these people will return to earth now that he’s out of office. We literally have a dangerous cult that’s overtaken at least a significant portion of all those who voted for him, and we will be wrestling with the fallout from this for decades.
Sometimes an anecdote tells the whole story. This is super depressing and lines up with what @subtomic is saying. Argh. "Best" conman in American history, bar none.
" 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."
I personally know too many that are 100% loyal. I'm beyond sad, depress or frustrated. Acceptance is friend and family is family.
People have the right to be gullible People don't have the right to take advantage of it . . .imo These despicable people need to be jailed harshly. Rocket River
I read that article this morning. Didn't surprise me at all. Trump is the master of manipulation and Grifting to get what he wants. A true con. One day, I hope his window view is the cellmate across the hall.
The recurring donations swelled Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed. Pretty sure the term for this is "pyramid scheme".
