Former Presidents Lawyers Have Demanded Gop Stop Using His Name And Image On Fundraising Media
Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile
Donald Trump issued a statement telling his supporters to send money directly to his PAC rather than donating to the Republican Party.
Mr Trump issued a statement on Tuesday directing his supporters to send their money to the “Save America PAC” rather than give it to “RINOS” a derisive shorthand for “Republicans in name only.”
“No more money for RINOS. They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base they will never lead us to Greatness,” Mr Trump said in the statement.
The statement directs potential donors to Mr Trump’s personal website.
“We will bring it all back stronger than ever before!” the statement concludes.
Donation To Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
In 2013, the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 in support of Florida attorney generalPam Bondi‘s election campaign while Bondi’s office was reviewing fraud allegations against Trump University, a for-profit real estate program. Around that time Trump also hosted a fundraiser for Bondi at his Mar-a-Lago resort at a fee well below his normal market rate. Bondi’s office later ended the investigation without bringing charges.
According to a Trump Foundation attorney, “the contribution was made in error due to a case of mistaken identity of organizations with the same name.” Trump later personally reimbursed his foundation for the $25,000. The foundation paid a $2,500 fine for violating IRS rules against political contributions by charitable organizations. In 2016 New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman said publicly that the Trump Foundation was the subject of an ongoing investigation by his office.
On October 5, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported details of how Trump had on several other occasions since as early as the 1980s made campaign donations to various US state attorneys general while they had been reviewing cases involving the Trump Organization or Trump personally, although the Bondi case is the only one it cited as having involved Trump Foundation money.
Failure To Make Pledged 9/11 Grants
An investigation by the New York City Comptroller‘s office in October 2016 showed that Trump and/or the Donald Trump Foundation may have failed to honor at least one pledge to charities established to provide relief for victims of the . Trump had made a pledge of $10,000 to the Twin Towers Fund on The Howard Stern Show in late September 2001. The Twin Towers Fund, later administered as part of the New York City Public and Private Initiative, was created by then-New York City MayorRudolph Giuliani “to benefit the families of firefighters and police officers who died in the attacks.”
During the 2016 Republican National Convention, Giuliani announced that Trump had made unspecified “anonymous” donations after the September 11 attacks, although such donations have not been identified. Giuliani also said, in support of Trump’s candidacy, “Every time New York City suffered a tragedy Donald Trump was there to help … He’s not going to like my telling you this but he did it anonymously.”
In 2016, after the convention, Trump’s campaign suggested that the Trump Foundation made a grant to the American Red Cross after the attacks however, no record of it exists in the foundation’s tax filings from 2001 through 2014. As with the Twin Towers Fund, if Trump instead had made a personal donation, it would not have shown up in the foundation’s records.
You May Like: Will Trump Be Reelected In 2020
Trump Camp Uses Online Gimmick To Fuel Donations Into December
The Trump campaign is now automatically checking a box to create recurring weekly donations from supporters until mid-December.
- Read in app
President Trumps campaign is raising money for a prolonged political and legal fight long after Nov. 3 and recently began automatically checking a box to withdraw additional weekly contributions from online donors through mid-December nearly six weeks after Election Day.
Predicting FRAUD like youve never seen, the language on Mr. Trumps website opts contributors into making the weekly post-election donations to ensure we have the resources to protect the results and keep fighting even after Election Day. Users must proactively click to avoid making multiple contributions.
The unusual post-election revenue stream would help Mr. Trump pay off any bills that his campaign accumulates before Tuesday a campaign spokesman said no such debts had been incurred and could help fund a lengthy legal fight if the results are contested.
This race will be very close, and it is possible that multiple states will require recounts and potential additional spending from our campaign, said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Mr. Trumps campaign. The election process this year is under extraordinary circumstances, and we are also anticipating that Silicon Valley will attempt to interfere with our online fund-raising efforts post-election.
We have plenty, he said. You can only buy so many commercials.
Trump Taking Personal Credit For Donations Made Using Foundation Money
Both The Washington Post and Fox News reported that Trump repeatedly claimed in public, beginning in 2015, to have made over “$102 million” in charitable donations “in the past five years”. The Trump Organization provided journalists with a 93-page list of the donations. None of the cash donations were confirmed to come from Trump himself many were actually grants from the Trump Foundation.
For example, Trump took personal credit and was honored for a Trump Foundation grant to the Palm Beach Police Foundation that was actually from an outside source . He had pledged the money personally, and then the Trump Foundation solicited the $150,000 earmarked for the police foundation from an unrelated philanthropic organization, the Charles Evans Foundation. The Trump Foundation then paid the Palm Beach charity. The police then honored Trump personally with its annual Palm Tree Award at Trump’s hotel at its annual fundraiser.The Washington Post wrote that “Trump had effectively turned the Evans Foundation’s gifts into his gifts, without adding any money of his own.”
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has honored Trump variously as “Grand Benefactor” and “Grand Honorary Chair” at its annual fundraisers held at Trump’s estate. Trump may have also earned more money on the event fees it received from the institute than the Trump Foundation paid to the institute in grants. Trump has directed at least $300,000 of grants of the Trump Foundation money to Dana-Farber since 2010.
Read Also: How Much Does Trump Care Cost
Trump Blasts ‘rinos And Fools’ While Urging Supporters To Donate Directly To His Pac
Since leaving office, Trump has clashed with the RNC over fundraising efforts.
How Donald Trump has transformed the presidency
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is urging supporters to send donations directly to his political action committee, Save America, amid clashes with the Republican National Committee over its fundraising efforts.
Trump, who is said to be considering starting a new political party, issued a statement Tuesday warning donors of “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only, and “fools.”
“I fully support the Republican Party and important GOP Committees, but I do not support RINOs and fools, and it is not their right to use my likeness or image to raise funds,” the former president said. “So much money is being raised and completely wasted by people that do not have the GOPs best interests in mind. If you donate to our Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com, you are helping the America First movement and doing it right. We will WIN, and we will WIN BIG! Our Country is being destroyed by the Democrats!”
The Republican party is keen to tap into Trump’s popularity among conservative voters to raise money ahead of next year’s midterm elections and to help elect GOP candidates. But Trump, who made his fortune in licensing, appears to want to control the use of his name and image.
Gop Group Tells Online Donors: Give Every Month Or ‘we Will Have To Tell Trump You’re A Defector’
The campaign arm of House Republicans is using an aggressive tactic to push online donors toward committing to monthly contributions, telling them that opting out of having the same amount automatically charged to their credit card or withdrawn from their bank each month is an act of disloyalty toward former President Donald Trump.
UPDATE: The has an even worse alternate prechecked recurring donation box that says they will “tell Trump you are a DEFECTOR” if unchecked. h/t cc
Also Check: Where To Buy Donald Trump Hats
Revenge: Biden Department Of Justice Directly Targets Trump Directs Irs To Give His Tax Returns To Pelosi
The Biden Department of Justice has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service has to provide Congress with former President Donald Trumps tax records.
The opinion, which was written by the Justice Departments Legal Counsel team, stated that Congress has a legitimate legislative purpose to request former President Trumps tax returns.
READ IT:
In assessing whether requested information could serve a legitimate legislative purpose, the Executive Branch must give due weight to Congresss status as a co-equal branch of government. Like courts, therefore, Executive Branch officials must apply a presumption that Legislative Branch officials act in good faith and in furtherance of legitimate objectives.
When one of the congressional tax committees requests tax information pursuant to section 6103, and has invoked facially valid reasons for its request, the Executive Branch should conclude that the request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose only in exceptional circumstances. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former Presidents tax information. Under section 6103, Treasury must furnish the information to the Committee.
CNBC reports that the opinion is a reversal of an opinion by the same office, during the Trump administration, which had backed the IRS refusal to give the committee Trumps returns.
How Can Trump Spend His Leadership Pac Funds
Fischer said Save America funds can be used for the president’s post-White House political operation “to keep former campaign staff on the payroll, to fund Trump’s travel and expenses when he is campaigning for other candidates, and to help finance rallies and events .”
He noted that it’s “not entirely uncommon for politicians who are out of office, but eyeing another run for office, to use leadership PACs to sustain a political operation between elections.”
Campaign finance watchdogs have referred to leadership PACs as “slush funds” for candidates over the years because although they were intended to enable politicians to spend the funds on other candidates’ races, the money is often used for more personal expenses that cannot be paid for by campaign funds. This is because, as Fischer notes, the Federal Election Commission “hasn’t interpreted the personal use ban to apply to leadership PAC funds.”
What this means is that “although Trump cannot use campaign funds to pay himself or his family members excessive salaries, or to buy enough copies of Don Jr.’s book to land it on the bestseller list, he might try to use leadership PAC funds for such purposes,” Fischer said. The Campaign Legal Center has also pointed out instances where politicians have drawn from their leadership PACs to pay for trips to Disney World, golf excursions, Broadway tickets and luxury hotel stays.
You May Like: Why Is Donald Trump Such An Idiot
How Refunds To Trump Donors Soared In 2020
Refunds are shown as the percentage of money received by each operation to date via WinRed and ActBlue.
Trump
Around March 2020, the pre-filled check box first appeared on Mr. Trumps online donation form.
Total online refunds in 2020, in millions
$122
Around March 2020, the pre-filled check box first appeared on Mr. Trumps online donation form.
Total online refunds in 2020, in millions
$122
Total online refunds in 2020, in millions
$122
Total online refunds in 2020,
in millions
Biden
Note: Donations and refunds to former President Donald J. Trump include those made via WinRed for the following organizations: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., Trump Victory, Trump Make America Great Again Committee, Save America, and the Republican National Committee. Donations and refunds to President Biden include those made via ActBlue for the following groups: Biden for President, Biden Victory Fund, Biden Action Fund, Biden Fight Fund, and the Democratic National Committee.
Several bank representatives who fielded fraud claims directly from consumers estimated that WinRed cases, at their peak, represented as much as 1 to 3 percent of their workload. An executive for one of the nations larger credit-card issuers confirmed that WinRed at its height accounted for a similar percentage of its formal disputes.
That still amounts to about 200,000 disputed transactions that Mr. Miller said added up to $19.7 million.
Government Posts: Ike Perlmutter Duke Buchan Lynda Blanchard
Duke Buchan, a wealthy but little-known Wall Street investor, wasnt shy about coveting an ambassadorship after he and his wife gave the Trump Victory fund almost $450,000 each, the maximum amount allowable by federal campaign finance laws in 2016. One of the last vestiges of the spoils system, cushy diplomatic posts routinely go to campaign patrons. Buchan and his wife, joint donor Hannah Flournoy Buchan, declined to comment.
Buchan told friends that he viewed Trump as a disrupter and cheered the candidates attacks on political correctness, looking forward to saying Merry Christmas again, The New York Times reported in 2017. Buchan was rewarded with an appointment as ambassador to Spain, where he had studied abroad decades earlier. He reportedly complained that European Union regulations scuttled his plans to bring his polo ponies along. While in office, Buchan took part in the Trump administrations controversial efforts to oust Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
While ambassadorships are common rewards for big donors, Lynda Blanchard was unusually blunt about it. According to a person familiar with her appointment who asked not to be named in connection with the discussions, Blanchard explicitly reminded transition officials how much she donated. She and her husband gave more than $2 million to Republicans between 2015 and 2018, when Trump nominated her as ambassador to Slovenia, Melania Trumps native country. Blanchard didnt respond to requests for comment.
Don’t Miss: What Is Trump New Immigration Law
Turning The Crowd Into The People
Populism is a complex and contested political concept. It is nevertheless identifiable by certain characteristics. First, of course, it often involves some form of demagoguery, a rhetorical device that Donald Trump masters perfectly, as rhetoric professor Jennifer Mercieca has shown. Youre stronger, youre smarter. Youve got more going than anybody, he told his audience on January 6. He also praised the crowds pride and supposed patriotism, calling out a deep and enduring love for America in our hearts an overwhelming pride in this great country. But flattery in itself does not define populism.
As political scientist has demonstrated, what characterizes populism is above all a very restrictive and exclusive definition of the people. In his inaugural speech, President Trump contrasted the forgotten people with a corrupt elite. When he addressed his supporters on January 6, he said: You are the real people which he defined as the people that built this nation, and contrary to the people that tore down our nation. Trumps American people are also the people who do not believe the corrupt fake news anymore.
As many observers have noted, Trump is obsessed with crowd size. One of the very first lies from his spokesperson regarded the size of the 2016 inauguration crowd, how it was bigger than Obamas in 2009, despite clear evidence to the contrary. This was the first of thousands of alternative facts that came to define Trumps presidency.
