How Trump Fleeced His Own Supporters

[DonViejo]

April 3, 2021 at 1:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

New York Times: “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. 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 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.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/03/how-trump-fleeced-his-own-supporters/

[secondwind]

1. Not surprised one bit.

[AZ8theist]

10. Doturd rips off people?

In other news, water is wet. Film at 11.....

[GopherGal]

47. Pope still Catholic, sources say...

Bear shits in woods, caught on wildlife cam!

[BobTheSubgenius]

20. I am.

How could a pack of jackals like the RNC not have come up with this before now? Surprising.

[Elessar Zappa]

29. Ha!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

55. trump scammed his own supporters

[LiberalFighter]

2. If that is not a crime it needs to be.

[KPN]

40. Sure seems like it, but probably a "buyer beware", read the fine print Dort of thing. And if people

haven’t contacted/complained to and demanded refunds from the campaign, probably not?

[abqtommy]

3. Robert Heinlein has written that you can't cheat/con an honest man. The supporters of

Last edited Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Previous Guy were ready and willing to be fleeced before they ever met him.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Ah, one of my favorite authors! I love his books, have reread them over and over again!!

[Martin68]

16. I, too, loved Heinlein as a middle and high school student. After reading Farnham's Freehold

I got suspicious and was dismayed to learn that Heinlein became a militaristic fascist as he aged. Wikipedia provides the following quote:

"When Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead was published, Heinlein was very favorably impressed, as quoted in "Grumbles ..." and mentioned John Galt—the hero in Rand's Atlas Shrugged—as a heroic archetype in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein

A good analysis in the L.A. Times:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-09-ca-heinlein9-story.html

[Tommymac]

12. Meh. Heinlein was an unrepentant Libertarian and warmonger.

I loath his ideal societies.

I blame him and other popular writers of the time for hyping sophomoric Ayn Randian philosophies and spreading those hateful ideas among several generations of young folks.

Heinlein was Anti-Democratic - except for the privileged few.

[CloudWatcher]

34. WC Fields said it best

"My dear old grandfather, Litvak said, just before they sprung the trap, he said you can't cheat and honest man, never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump."

From the film the film "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man"

It's been the backbone of the GOP for a long time now.

[ShazzieB]

38. The idea that you can't con an honest person makes no sense to me.

A person can easily be both deeply honest and highly gullible. Look at the scams that people fall for and the kinds of people that fall for them. Many, if not most, are based on the willingness of the "mark" to believe whatever outlandish notions they are fed (Nigerian "princes," I'm looking at you), and that has very little to do with whether they themselves are honest people.

Greed can certainly make a person more vulnerable to certain types of "get rich quick" scams, but greed isn't a synonym for dishonesty, any more than gullibility is. Chump's followers are gullible, but I do not believe that automatically means they are all dishonest people. To say they fell for Trump's dishonesty because they are not honest themselves sounds like victim blaming to me.

Here's an article that talks about the reasons people get suckered into scams: https://theconversation.com/five-psychological-reasons-why-people-fall-for-scams-and-how-to-avoid-them-102421 (Dishonesty on the part of those being scammed is not on the list.)

[soldierant]

50. Wikipedia attributes that quote to W. C, Fields

(already older than Heinlein) but I can't help believing that it is much, much older. Maybe even prehistoric.

[Botany]

5. And how many of those people still voted for that grifter?

n/t

[spooky3]

15. I wondered exactly the same thing. Nt

[Botany]

53. Well at least you had Ivanka with her Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act

Oh never mind. "Surprise: Ivanka Trump’s Signature Women’s Initiative Was a Massive Failure"


https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/ivanka-trump-gao-report

The only question left is how much money she grifted out of the project and how she ran the scam.

[spooky3]

54. Those damn Deep Staters ruined everything! Nt

[Mariana]

21. "It wasn't his fault, it must have been some underling and he didn't know about it!

It's amazing the knots they tie themselves in to excuse every shitty and stupid thing he does.

[KPN]

41. You know it!

[WA-03 Democrat]

6. We had this happen with Act Blue with Biden

One time last September. We called Act Blue they reversed the charges immediately. Never happened again.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

31. ActBlue has a different business model

Link to tweet

[Random Boomer]

35. I got stung by Act Blue a few years ago, with a monthly donation I didn't see for months.

I didn't seek a refund because it was for a good cause, but the experience soured me on their fund-raising site for quite awhile. I eventually went back, but I pay a LOT more attention to all those checkbox options. And if I find a pre-checked box, I immediately cancel out of that donation process. It's a scummy tactic and I will not support any campaign that uses it.

[dalton99a]

7. They'll sing his praises on their deathbeds

clutching their stupid red hats

[EleanorR]

8. Bleeding his supporters dry

Link to tweet

[KPN]

45. Lol. Perfect! So many evil weasels so ready willing

and able to do the chief weasel’s bidding.

[lame54]

9. Why is this written in the past tense?...

Trump's still grifting

Trumpers just got their stimulus

[FakeNoose]

25. I thought he couldn't collect campaign "donations"

... until he had actually declared his candidacy. There are laws against it, even Chump knows that. Has he declared yet?

[lame54]

26. Legalities never stop Trump...

I'm sure he has multiple grifts going on

[Upthevibe]

11. .....................

.......................

[UpInArms]

13. Grifters gotta grift

eom

[erronis]

14. I know I should feel sorry for the trump marks, especially ones in hospice or low on funds...

Given this time of year, I'll send my thoughts and prayers so they might return to sanity. Low hope for that, however.

[Bird Lady]

17. And they'll vote for him again..nt

[Under The Radar]

18. Sounds like a replica of a televangelist business model

.... just keep replanting that seed each week.

[rickyhall]

19. Sucker, meet con artist.

[miyazaki]

22. Bump.

Criminal Sociopath.

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. I don't feel sorry for ONE of them

In fact, I wish he had sucked them dry...they deserve it.

[Butterflylady]

32. I agree and can not stress that enough.

They deserve what ever happens to them because they brought on themselves. Put the country thru 4 years of hell.

[Ferrets are Cool]

56. Yes they did.

[spanone]

24. a con artist through and through. not an honest bone in his body.

may karma unload on him

[Aristus]

27. Sorry. You donate to Trump, you're begging to get fleeced...

[Carlitos Brigante]

28. Trump?? What?! I don't buy it. Completely out of character. nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. trump scammed his own supporters

Link to tweet

[czarjak]

33. You can lead a rube to anything. (When you're a star, of course)

[3825-87867]

37. When you're a Presidential grifter -

you can grab them by the purse... and they love it.

[Mr. Ected]

39. Trump supporters are hateful and vindictive

This is just a little dose of cosmic karma.

[usaf-vet]

42. He is one sorry POS. But I don't feel one ounce of pity for his suckers. They deserve each other.

[AlexSFCA]

43. hate is not free

[ironflange]

44. Once a crook, always a crook

[Blue Owl]

46. Donald tRump is a big fat piece of shit

Always was, and always will be...

[keithbvadu2]

48. People used to be able to get a one-time credit card number for their real credit card.

People used to be able to get a one-time credit card number for their real credit card.

It could be used only once.

Don't hear about that anymore.

[Skittles]

49. how stupid are these fucking people

sending money to a KNOWN CON MAN

[LetMyPeopleVote]

52. trump defrauded his idiot supporters

Link to tweet

?s=20

[LetMyPeopleVote]

57. The Trump campaign accounting for up to 3% of ALL CREDIT CARD FRAUD CLAIMS IN THE ENTIRE US

Link to tweet