Of Course Trump Has Scammed Millions From His Not-Very-Bright Supporters

One of the more ironic aspects of Donald Trump’s improbable election win in 2016 was that many of his supporters declared they were voting for him because unlike career politicians, he actually told the truth. In reality, of course, he lied about everything all the time. Whether it was a big lie like the one about how Mexico was going to pay for his wall; a weird lie like the one about having been named Michigan’s “Man of the Year”; an insane lie like the one about windmills causing cancer; a sad, pathetic lie like the one about his inauguration crowd being bigger than Barack Obama’s; or a truly WTF lie like the one about the Boy Scouts of America calling to tell him his crazy speech in front of thousands of children was the best one they’d ever heard, the man spent his entire time in office lying through his caps, to the tune of 30,573 lies in four years. (Or 7,643 lies a year, or 21 lies a day.)

Obviously Trump hasn’t stopped lying since he left Washington, with the biggest lie being that he won the 2020 election, but at the same time, his supporters continue not to care. So while it might tick off a normal person to learn that money they’d donated to a (supposedly) important cause had actually gone to funding personal expenses for a guy who never misses a chance to tell everyone how rich he is, we’re pretty sure the ex-president’s followers will not be bothered.

Per The Washington Post:

Former president Donald Trump’s political PAC raised about $75 million in the first half of this year as he trumpeted the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen from him, but the group has not devoted funds to help finance the ongoing ballot review in Arizona or to push for similar endeavors in other states, according to people familiar with the finances.

Instead, the Save America leadership PAC—which has few limits on how it can spend its money—has paid for some of the former president’s travel, legal costs, and staff, along with other expenses, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the group’s inner workings. The PAC has held on to much of its cash.

An extremely charitable, naive way to read this would be to say that Trump is all talk about trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election but actually isn’t putting any real effort into it at all. But of course that’s not what’s going on here. Trump desperately wants to find evidence to support the baseless lie that a second term was stolen from him, but he just wants someone else to pay for it.

Even as he assiduously tracks attempts by his allies to cast doubt on the integrity of last year’s election, Trump has been uninterested in personally bankrolling the efforts, relying on other entities and supporters to fund the endeavors…The tactic allows Trump to build up a war chest to use in the 2022 midterms on behalf of candidates he favors—and to stockpile cash for another potential White House run, an unprecedented maneuver for a former president.

In the meantime, the monthslong audit of Maricopa County’s ballots in Arizona—which is expected to cost millions—is being paid for primarily by nonprofit entities that do not disclose their donors and private individuals such as former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne. A lawsuit seeking a similar audit in Fulton County, Georgia, has been financed by small donations, according to the group that brought the claim. A spokeswoman for Trump did not answer questions on whether the group is considering putting money into the ballot review efforts. The group will have to publicly disclose its fundraising and spending for the first half of the year by July 31.

Since leaving office, Trump has repeatedly pushed for various states to overturn the election results, sending out a blizzard of statements with unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. He has consulted with state officials in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, and has described state ballot reviews as the key to prove he won the 2020 election. And his political group has repeatedly urged donors to give by claiming that Trump is working to protect their vote—fundraising pitches that his advisers say remain the most lucrative. “We need you to join the fight to SECURE OUR ELECTIONS!” reads one Facebook ad…. The former president has repeatedly made false claims of irregularities in the Arizona vote, asserting in a statement this month that it amounted “to hundreds of thousands of votes or, many times what is necessary for us to have won.”

The Save America PAC “is probably the most lucrative thing he’s had in terms of cash flow since the Plaza casino in Atlantic City,” Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, told the Post. “This is just as lucrative. He has recognized because of what happened after the election—he can make money as a candidate.”

Of course this isn’t the first time Trump has scammed supporters out of money. In April, New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher revealed that the Trump campaign had ripped off supporters for tens of millions of dollars through a scheme in which when they donated money, the default option authorized the campaign to transfer the pledged amount from people’s bank accounts not once but every single week. Later the campaign introduced a second prechecked box that doubled a person’s contribution and was thus known internally as a “money bomb.” (In order for people to have noticed this, they would have had to wade through “lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.”) And the scheme continued after Trump lost the election, with his campaign reportedly “continu[ing] the weekly withdrawals through prechecked boxes all the way through December 14.” Those withdrawals, the Times noted, occurred “as [Trump] raised tens of millions of dollars for his new political action committee, Save America.”

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Alabama governor Kay Ivey tells constituents to get it through their thick heads that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe

“Folks are supposed to have common sense,” Ivey told a reporter on Thursday when asked what can be done to encourage more people to get the vaccine. “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.… I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something, but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”

This no-nonsense push for people to stop listening to conspiracy theorists and start getting vaccinated would be deeply refreshing were it not for the fact that Ivey lifted mask mandates as Joe Biden asked states to keep or reinstate them, banned businesses and institutions from requiring vaccination passports in May, and steadfastly supported the guy who lied about the virus to the public. On the same day that Ivey told the media, of the unvaccinated, “These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain,” she also signaled she would not mandate mask-wearing in classrooms when classes resume in Alabama’s public schools.

Clarification: I was not trying to do something good here!

Sean Hannity wants to make it abundantly clear that when he uncharacteristically told viewers to take COVID-19 seriously this week, he wasn’t actually advocating that they do the easiest, smartest thing to protect themselves, okay? Per the Daily Beast:

Amid a noticeable shift in much—but definitely not all—of Fox News’ coverage in recent days towards a more pro-vaccine stance, complete with a new PSA featuring anchors urging viewers to get their shots, Hannity delivered a message on Tuesday night imploring his audience to “please take COVID seriously.… And it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated,” the pro-Trump host added on Tuesday. “I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination.”

On Thursday night, Hannity wanted to set the record straight. Which, naturally, included him railing against the “media mob” for giving him credit for encouraging his millions of viewers to get a shot. “These reports are all false for multiple reasons,” he blared while reading off a list of headlines touting his supposed pro-vaccine stance.… “I never told anyone to get a vaccine,” the conservative host proclaimed. “I have been very clear. I am simply not qualified.”

Hannity added: “I am not a medical doctor. I know nothing about your medical history or your current medical condition. I think it’s inappropriate for me to do so. Instead, for over a year now I have been warning my viewers, you make my career possible.” Of course, as the Daily Beast points out, a lack of a medical degree has never prevented the Fox News host from claiming that Biden has dementia and hosting a guest who speculated, just this week, that Biden “will either resign from office in the near future for medical issues or they will have to use the 25th amendment to get rid” of him.

Anyway, on the vaccine front, the guy just wants to be crystal clear: He wasn’t trying to actually do something helpful or atypically noble, okay? Don’t get it twisted! 

Elsewhere!

COVID Increase in Hot-Spot U.S. States Is Forecast to Worsen (Bloomberg)

Pfizer to Supply U.S. With Millions of Shots for Young Kids (Bloomberg)

Mississippi Asks Supreme Court to End Roe v. Wade Abortion Rights (WSJ)

Amazon to investigate discrimination after petition wins backing of hundreds of employees (Washington Post)

In Palm Beach, at Least 22 Homes Sold for $40M-Plus Since COVID (WSJ)

JPMorgan to Double Advisers as Wall Street Vies for Wealthy (Bloomberg)

How Much More Will Your Oreos Cost? Companies Test Price Increases (WSJ)

The “Fyre Festival” of overnight camps closed after six days (NYP)

Girl on Jersey Shore amusement ride collides face-first with seagull (UPI)

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