Trump's post-presidential fund-raising scam

Surprise, surprise! He's going straight to fleecing the rubes!

With the Trump Organization under assault from two directions in New York – the office of the Manhattan D.A. and the N.Y. Attorney General – Donald Trump has naturally been casting around looking for a steady source of income.  It should come as no surprise that he’s decided the best way to line his own pockets is to pick the pockets of his MAGA maniacs, much like televangelists fleece their flocks.

We got a tip-off about Trump’s plans on Friday when his lawyers sent “cease and desist” orders to the three largest Republican campaign fund- raising organizations:  the Republican National Committee, which raises money for party candidates at state and federal levels around the country; the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports Republican candidates for the House; and the National Republican Senate Committee, which of course supports Republican candidates for the Senate.

All three major Republican Party organizations are actively engaged in raising money for the 2022 and 2024 elections.  They are the most important fund-raising arms of the Republican Party in the country, and will hold dozens, if not hundreds of fund-raisers for party candidates in the coming months and years, not to mention running steady fund-raising campaigns online. 

The three campaign committees have been using Trump’s name and likeness in a flood of appeals for funds hoping his popularity among Republicans will bolster their campaign committee war-chests as they raise money going forward.  Trump, however, has been critical of what he calls “establishment Republicans,” among whom were several of the party stalwarts who voted to either impeach him in the House or convict him in the Senate, including Liz Cheney, who holds the third most powerful position in the House Republican leadership as Conference Chair, and Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

Trump sent a signal of his intentions in his speech at the Conservative Political Action conference in Orlando in late February when he told his adoring audience “there is only one way to contribute to our efforts… and that's through Save America PAC and donaldjtrump.com.” 

Trump’s appeal to his followers to send money to his PAC and to his personal website came near the end of his speech and went largely unremarked on by pundits at the time.  But now we know what he meant by “only one way.”  He wants his followers to stop giving their money to the “Republican establishment” campaign committees, and his cease and desist order to the RNC, the RNCC, and the NRSC put some teeth in his plans to dominate Republican fund raising for the next four years.

But I think we know what’s really behind that cease and desist order.  He wants all of his followers’ money coming straight to him, and I think we know what he intends to do with it, because he’s done it before.  He’s going to recycle it from his PAC and his personal website directly into his pocket by hiring his kids as “consultants” and “advisers” to both of his fund-raising arms, and by employing phony polling outfits, lobbying groups, and political consultants and paying them millions of dollars of the money he raises and skimming “profits” from his own front companies right off the top.

He figured out ways to steer millions of federal dollars into his own pockets while he was president by overcharging his own Secret Service detail for accommodations and food at his golf courses, even by renting them the golf carts they were forced to follow him around with.  And of course he tacitly leaned on foreign governments to drop millions at the Trump International Hotel in Washington to curry favor with him, evidence of which has been revealed since he left office and bookings at his Washington hotel plummeted.

Donald Trump is a natural born grifter.  He skimmed money from contractors at every building he ever put his name on.  He stiffed independent contractors who worked for him on bills he owed them.  It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he fleeced Miss Universe contestants of money that should have been theirs from sponsorships and travel allowances.

Now he’s going straight for the wallets of his red hat-wearing rubes, flooding them with fund raising appeals and converting their dollars into hidden Trump income through his PAC and website.  The man knows no shame, but he sure knows where the bucks are.