Supporters of former President Donald Trump are furious after a bombshell report from The New York Times revealed that the Trump campaign was deceiving its donors, turning one-time payments into recurring monthly donations without their knowledge by automatically checking the box to do so and making it hard to see on the page confirming the contribution.
According to The Times, thousands of MAGA donors were hoodwinked by a deceptive “recurring payment” option for the president’s campaign fundraising system. This deception led to thousands of Trump donors demanding refunds for the money they never agreed for the campaign to take out of their bank accounts.
“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,” reported Shane Goldmacher. “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 result was that many of these donors gave far more than they ever intended to the Trump campaign, and tons of them demanded refunds.
Baffled commenters on social media blasted the Trump campaign for the sleazy tactic, accusing him of perpetrating a financial scam on the very people who tried to keep him in office.
Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via @WinRed. It recurred 7 more times, adding up to almost $8,000.
“I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”https://t.co/kKPn454Ekn
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) April 3, 2021
cold blooded but not surprising, isn’t it? pic.twitter.com/skNjL3wUsU
— Peter Pan (@PeterPa38315071) April 3, 2021
Stupid people getting fleeced by a con man. https://t.co/bftIs46D6C
— Rick Smith (@RickSmithShow) April 3, 2021
Some of the details in this article is pretty staggering. The forensic accounting and reports of the things that went on with Trump presidency are going to be more shocking as the years go by. https://t.co/m96CqCOb52
— Kojak (@lifeontheroad10) April 3, 2021
This is CRIMINAL. Look, we all know the man is a complete scam, along with anyone who associates with him. But this affected those who couldn’t afford it. Without a care in the world. @FEC should be all over this snake in the grass. https://t.co/2XnZtKkpjw
— @MagicCityMoon (@magiccitymoon) April 3, 2021
Get caught stealing $3,000 worth of anything from somewhere and see what happens to you.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) April 3, 2021
It’s all he’ll ever really amount to.
Taking advantage of the forgotten men and women he promised to champion for. #DontheCon https://t.co/ECDYQaKRoW pic.twitter.com/wAZ4KbKYSz— Fati Houssein (@H2Pandora) April 3, 2021
I’m just surprised that they wanted some of their money back after 45 “grifter” them…they just love him so much…wonder why they didn’t just let him keep all of those funds🎂
— marie_mitch (@MitchTooBelieve) April 3, 2021
Griftin’ Trumpy the Clown never saw his supporters as anything other than patsies and marks. https://t.co/f8BGgR4k6B
— Witch Hunter (@ThirdChances) April 3, 2021
Fraud.
Once or twice might be a mistake.
$64 MILLION is intentional. https://t.co/3tkUZlKKK1
— Raymond Baker (@RayBake) April 3, 2021
