The MAGA Grift

[nsacpi]

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 Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr.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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...donations.html

[nsacpi]

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.

[nsacpi]

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.

The recurring donations swelled Mr. 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.

[sturg33]

Another great and necessary thread

[nsacpi]

what can i say...your boy is the gift that keeps on giving...literally in this case

[sturg33]

The current administration has much to criticize if you prefer to stop living in the past

[Krgrecw]

The current administration has much to criticize if you prefer to stop living in the past

I’m starting to think TDS is real, and he’s a prime example.

[sturg33]

I’m starting to think TDS is real, and he’s a prime example.

Starting?

[nsacpi]

Glad to see the Rapid Response Team has not been disbanded.

[Krgrecw]

Starting?

Starting as in, this is a lasting mental disease. I
thought most of them would had moved on by now.

[mqt]

The current administration has much to criticize if you prefer to stop living in the past

Campaigns and the companies they raise funds through essentially stealing thousands of dollars from the poor in the last 6 months isn’t really the kind of thing you can just call a past program.

This is a problem in a lot of different fields, and there needs to be a better framework in place to protect people. The company would have to realize that setting something to automatically recur and hiding the information would lead to this outcome. How is that not the bigger concern to you?

[goldfly]

yeah, stop living in the past

i mean, forget that literally the republican party hasn't moved on yet from it and is still calling him the leader etc etc etc

but the real issue is you showing he's still the con man he's always been

just a way to try to get people to shut up and stop pointing out how awful their god is

[sturg33]

Campaigns and the companies they raise funds through essentially stealing thousands of dollars from the poor in the last 6 months isn’t really the kind of thing you can just call a past program.

This is a problem in a lot of different fields, and there needs to be a better framework in place to protect people. The company would have to realize that setting something to automatically recur and hiding the information would lead to this outcome. How is that not the bigger concern to you?

Plenty of room in the Trump thread to.discuss or the other two dozen random threads about Trump he and comrade goldy have started

[mqt]

Plenty of room in the Trump thread to.discuss or the other two dozen random threads about Trump he and comrade goldy have started

There’s almost literally no need for anything but a Trump Presidency Thread, Biden Presidency Thread, Congress Thread and SCOTUS Thread by that logic.

It seems particularly newsworthy that this company and by extension the campaign were preying on the poor.

[nsacpi]

There’s almost literally no need for anything but a Trump Presidency Thread, Biden Presidency Thread, Congress Thread and SCOTUS Thread by that logic.

It seems particularly newsworthy that this company and by extension the campaign were preying on the poor.

In some ways sturg's anti-clutter campaign is admirable...it would be more credible, however, if his concern about clutter was more shall we say universal

[cajunrevenge]

lol I dont feel any sympathy for these people. They chose to give their money to a known con man. What did they think was going to happen? This is a guy who used charity funds to pay an 8 dollar boy scout fee.

[Runnin]

People would like to forget the mistakes they made.

[goldfly]

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...donations.html

lol

what an idiot

[Tapate50]

My grandfather always said “a fool and his money are Soon parted”

[cajunrevenge]

I am gonna have to agree with Sturg. We cant have seperate threads for every Trump con job. Would clog up the forum.