Group Includes Prominent Lawmakers From Both Parties
Much has been said about how Vice President-elect Mike Pence, with his 12 years as a congressman, could be incoming President Donald Trumps bridge to Congress. But Trump has his own ties to the Hill, in the form of nearly two decades worth of political contributions to sitting members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle.
Trump has donated to the campaigns of 44 current members of Congress, according to a Roll Call review of Federal Election Commission electronic records that are available since 1997. Nineteen of those members are in the Senate, and 25 are in the House.
In 1997, Trump gave to New Jersey Republican Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, and GOP Sens. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama.
LoBiondo has received more individual donations from the president-elect than any other current member 10 in all. Trump, however, has given more money to two others.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona tops the list with seven donations totaling $8,600. Second is Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, who accepted eight donations totaling $7,900.
Trump has picked fights with both those senators since he announced his run for president famously questioning McCains heroism in July 2015 and, more recently, in a tweet.
In total, Trump has given $88,500 to sitting Republicans, and $24,000 to sitting Democrats who make up seven of the 44 current members hes given to.
Donald Trump Used Campaign Donations To Buy $55000 Of His Own Book
FEC rules dictate the Republican nominee must forgo royalties on the books sales, or else the $55,000 purchase at Barnes & Noble was illegal.
Donald Trump used his campaign funds to buy thousands of copies of his own book at retail cost, simultaneously diverting donor money back into his pockets while artificially boosting his sales figures. Its a tactic that may be illegal, campaign finance experts say.
On May 10, the Trump campaign paid Barnes & Noble $55,055, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. That amounts to more than 3,500 copies of the hardcover version of Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or just over 5,000 copies of the renamed paperback release, Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.
A spokesperson for the Republican nominee told The Daily Beast the books were purchased as part of gifting at the convention, which we have to do. Sure enough, delegates in attendance at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July were given canvas tote bags, stamped with the Trump slogan, and filled with copies of Crippled America, as well as Kleenex and Make America Great Again! cups, hats, and T-shirts. Delegates were also given plastic fetus figurines.
Paul Ryan , of the nonpartisan nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said that Trump would have to forgo accepting royalties for sales on the book in order for the transaction to be legal, under Federal Election Committee rules.
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Trump Took Millions In Campaign Donations And Gave Them To His Businesses
Donald Trumps reelection campaign, which never received a cent from the former president, moved an estimated $2.8 million of donor money into the Trump Organizationincluding at least $81,000 since Trump lost the election.
In addition, one of the campaigns joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trumps business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020at least $331,000 of which came after the election.
The money covered the cost of rent, airfare, lodging and other expenses.
Trumps actions demonstrate that for him the presidency was always a for-profit venture. Donald Trump has zero interest in the job of being president. He spent much of his energy during his time in office trying to figure out ways to get taxpayer money into his businesses.
The difference between the nation having a grifter and a commander in chief has been on display in the few weeks that Joe Bidenhas been in office. By the end of February, Joe Biden will have legislatively achieved more help for the American people than Donald Trump did in four years.
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Trump’s Fundraising Extends Massive $122 Million War Chest
He raised $51M in the second half of 2021, down from $82M in the first half.
Former President Donald Trump announced Monday night that his political committees raised more than $51 million over the second half of last year, to buttress what is now a massive $122 million war chest.
Trump’s latest fundraising haul is a drop from the first half of last year, when his various committees together raised a total of $82 million from January through June of 2021.
It is possible that the $82 million sum Trump’s team announced for the first half of last year included transferred money raised in the final weeks of 2020, though the exact amount transferred from the previous year is unclear.
Trump’s war chest puts him in a uniquely strong position heading into the 2022 midterms and ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run.
The Gary And Gerrit Operation
Where did all the money go? he would lash out, according to two senior advisers.
Inside the Trump re-election headquarters in Northern Virginia, the pressure was building to wring ever more money out of his supporters.
Perhaps nowhere was that pressure more acute than on Mr. Trumps expansive and lucrative digital operation. That was the unquestioned domain of Gary Coby, a 30-something strategist whose title digital director and microscopic public profile belied his immense influence on the Trump operation, especially online.
A veteran of the R.N.C. and the 2016 race, Mr. Coby had the confidence, trust and respect of Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, who unofficially oversaw the 2020 campaign, according to people familiar with the campaigns operations. Mr. Kushner and the rest of the campaign leadership gave Mr. Coby, whose talents are recognized across the Republican digital industry, wide latitude to raise money however he saw fit.
That meant almost endless optimization and experimentation, sometimes pushing the traditional boundaries. The Trump team repeatedly used phantom donation matches and faux deadlines to loosen donor wallets . Eventually it ratcheted up the volume of emails it sent until it was barraging supporters with an average of 15 per day for all of October and November 2020.
The campaigns determine their own fund-raising strategies and make their own decisions on how to use these tools, Mr. Lansing said in WinReds statement.
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Grants Allegedly Made For Political Purposes
Trump paid $100,000 of Trump Foundation funds in 2012 to Reverend Franklin Graham‘s Billy Graham Evangelical Association. NBC News has called Graham “an early ally” of Trump. “The more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, ‘You know, maybe the guy’s right,'” Graham had told ABC News in 2011. In October 2016 Graham revealed to the Charlotte Observer that in 2012 he had instructed Trump to make the $100,000 donation, and that the money was used to pay for full-page ads urging voters to support candidates in the 2012 presidential election who supported “biblical values”. The Observer has suggested the timing and tone of the ads indicate they were placed in support of Mitt Romney‘s campaign.
Graham also heads Boone, North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief agency that received $25,000 from the Trump Foundation in 2012. Graham credits then-Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren for having solicited that donation. Van Susteren and her TV crew had accompanied Graham on Samaritan’s Purse trips to Haiti and North Korea. The Charlotte Observer quoted Graham saying, ” was on her show, and said, ‘I was just in Haiti and Samaritan’s Purse is doing this down there, and Donald, you need to help.’ He sent a check out.” In 2016, several media outlets alleged that Van Susteren had been producing overtly pro-Trump reports on her Fox News show On the Record.
The Commission Is Often Split Along Party Lines
The FEC comprises three Democratic commissioners and three Republican ones, all of whom are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Four votes are required to move any finance violation claim forward, but in recent years the commission has been deadlocked along party lines, particularly in cases that involve Trump.
“The stalemate on significant enforcement matters has been an ongoing concern for quite a long time,” Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub told NPR. “I don’t think we are doing the job that Congress set us up to do. I don’t think we’re doing an appropriate job of enforcing the law.”
Several former FEC officials who are now working at the Campaign Legal Center have also said current FEC guidelines are “ineffective” and they are advocating for legislative change.
In some recent complaints that have not been pursued by the FEC, Republican commissioners argued that moving forward would not be “the best use of agency resources.” Democratic commissioners, including Weintraub, argued their Republican counterparts are “damaging” the campaign finance process.
“We used to work better at finding four votes to pursue enforcement matters. … Commissioners used to work harder at finding a path forward,” Weintraub said, adding that the commission didn’t always act in a partisan manner. “I do worry there is now a new partisan tinge.”
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A Small Yellow Box And A Flood Of Fraud Complaints
The small and bright yellow box popped up on Mr. Trumps digital donation portal around . The text was boldface, simple and straightforward: Make this a monthly recurring donation.
The box came prefilled with a check mark.
Even that was more aggressive than what the Biden campaign would do in 2020. Biden officials said they rarely used prechecked boxes to automatically have donations recur monthly or weekly the exception was on landing pages where advertisements and emails had explicitly asked supporters to become repeat donors.
But for Mr. Trump, the prechecked monthly box was just the beginning.
Ronna McDaniel, the R.N.C. chairwoman, crowed to Fox News about the achievement without mentioning how exactly the party had pulled it off. Republicans are thinking smarter digitally, she said, and were poised to outwork, outdo, and outmaneuver the Democrats at every turn.
The two prechecked yellow boxes would be a fixture for the rest of the campaign. And so would a much larger volume of refunds.
Until then, the Biden and Trump operations had nearly identical refund rates on WinRed and ActBlue in 2020: 2.18 percent for Mr. Trump and 2.17 percent for Mr. Biden.
But from the day after Mr. Trumps birthday through the rest of the year, Mr. Bidens refund rate remained nearly flat, at 2.24 percent, while Mr. Trumps soared to 12.29 percent.
Even political professionals fell prey to the boxes.
Republicans Pounce On Fbi Raid At Mar
Trump and other candidates fundraising emails foment outrage and urge donations to stop the Radical Left
Republican and rightwing groups have swiftly used the FBI raid on Donald Trumps winter home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to raise money from their supporters by bombarding them with fundraising emails and appeals for donations.
In public the former US president, his allies and nearly all senior Republicans have expressed deep outrage at the raid, which is linked to Trump apparently keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago from his time in the White House. But the same figures have also seen the moment as a clear opportunity to urge supporters to dig deep into their pockets.
Most of the emails followed a common script: outrage at the raid, warnings of political persecution, the lawlessness and overreach of Democrats and the Biden administration. Each concluded with an invitation to make a donation.
MAR-A-LAGO was RAIDED, Trump texted his supporters on Tuesday morning. The Radical Left is corrupt. Return the power to the people! Will you fight with me? Donate.Trumps pick for Senate in Ohio, JD Vance, offered: This is NOT a DRILL. Joe Biden is ATTACKING President Trump for STANDING UP for US, Its time we show we have President Trumps back! Act here. The message provided a link to donate.
Bidens FBI raided President Trumps beautiful Florida home, the Republican National Committee wrote in another email. Hard to believe it but its true.
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Solicitation Of Donations Without A License
Under New York State law, a not-for-profit foundation must register as a “7A Charitable Organization” if it plans to solicit outside donations over $25,000 in any year. The Trump Foundation was initially registered as a private foundation set up solely to receive his own personal donations. As long as it was private and did not solicit outside funds, it did not have to file annual audited reports with the New York State Charities Bureau. However, records show that Trump began soliciting donations at least as early as 2004 and possibly as early as 1989.
This Is The Third Installment Of A Four
Donald Trump never donated to his own reelection campaign, but he did find plenty of other billionaires willing to write him checks. In total, Forbes identified 133 superrich donors who pitched in for Trumps 2020 campaign.
Trumps tycoons, who collectively make up about 14% of all American billionaires, tend to fall into a few specific categories. Several were longtime Republican mega-donors, like gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died in January, and his wife, Miriam. Others knew Trump from their days in business, including Texas banker Andy Beal and casino king Phil Ruffin. About one quarter of them made their money in finance and investments, more than any other industry. About 10% got rich in real estate, while roughly the same number earned a fortune from the energy sector. Most of them came from three states: New York , Texas and Florida .
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Timothy Mellon Pan Am Systems $10 Million
An heir to the Mellon banking fortune and the grandson of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, his is among the biggest donations this election cycle. He owns the largest regional railroad in North America, Pan Am Railways, which went up for sale in July. Hes been notably reclusive and absent from politics. Republican operatives reportedly had to look his name up on Google when he came forward to help.
Intended Dissolution Of The Trump Foundation
In September and October 2016 there were several legal actions and complaints filed against the Trump Foundation. The former head of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Exempt Organizations Division Marc Owens told The Washington Post regarding the various allegations against the foundation: “This is so bizarre, this laundry list of issues … It’s the first time I’ve ever seen this, and I’ve been doing this for 25 years in the IRS, and 40 years total.”
In late December 2016, one month before his inauguration, Trump announced that he would dissolve the Trump Foundation to avoid “even the appearance of any conflict with role as President”. However, a spokesperson from the New York State attorney general’s office told The New York Times, the same month, that the foundation “cannot legally dissolve” until its current investigation is completed.
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How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations
Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked. Complaints to banks and credit card companies soared. But the money helped keep Donald Trumps struggling campaign afloat.
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Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaughs dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trumps 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. Blatts 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.
Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.
It should be in textbooks of what you shouldnt do, he said.
What Are The Fees Charged When Using Your Credit Card To Donate To A Political Candidate
Campaigns, like all other businesses that take credit cards, have assessed transaction fees that decrease the amount of the actual contribution, Melanie Sloan, former executive director of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tells CNBC Select.
Just asgrocery stores and retailers have to pay a fee to accept credit cards, so do political candidates. When you give money to a political campaign or candidate using your credit card, a processing fee is taken as a percentage of that donation. There is usually a per-transaction fee charged as well.
For example, PayPal, one of the most popular electronic payment platforms, charges a processing fee of 2.9%, plus $0.30 per transaction. Raise The Money, another fundraising platform for candidates, has a processing fee of 4.9%, plus $0.25 per contribution. If you were to use the latter to make a donation, a $50 contribution would really end up being $47.30 in the campaign’s pockets.
This means that although websites say that they accept donations as small as $1, be mindful that these small-dollar contributions actually end up being eaten up by fees. In fact, the smaller the donation, the larger the percentage of it will go toward the fixed processing and per-transaction fees, rather than the candidate or campaign. So while every dollar may count, that doesn’t necessarily mean it goes toward your intended purpose.
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