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SHOCKING Trump Fundraising Scam Collapses
One of Donald Trump’s grifts imploded over the weekend, but not before the former president was able to scam his supporters out of millions of dollars. The scheme began last summer when Trump was seeking reelection and low on campaign funds. Beginning in September, the Trump campaign set up recurring donations for online donors so money would keep coming in every week until Election Day. The default method of contributing was with a recurring donation and the contributor would need to go through the fine print and uncheck a box to avoid being charged every month. As the election closed in, the Trump team did even more to hide the disclaimer and the opt-out and introduced a second prechecked box that would double a person’s payment for future months.
This scam netted Trump millions of dollars. While some people filed chargebacks through their credit card companies, many people didn’t or simply didn’t realize what happened. Some former Trump supporters, now enraged over the scam, are accusing the former president of fraud. One donor, 78-year-old Victor Amelino, was charged almost $8,000 after making an initial contribution of $990. He told The New York Times, “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.” This goes to show that Trump only cares about his supporters so long as they are useful to and profitable for him. The former president doesn’t see these people as those he’s morally and politically aligned with. Rather, they are just a bunch of suckers he can make money off of.
Trump CANCELS EVERYTHING, Demands Endless Boycotts
One-term ex-president Donald Trump is calling for a boycott on any company that protests the new voter suppression bill in Georgia. Last month, Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a bill, that among other things, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, imposes new voter ID requirements for absentee voting, and prohibits handing out food and water to voters waiting in line. Many Georgia-based companies, including Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, voiced their opposition to the law suspecting it to be an undemocratic power grab by the right. Major League Baseball joined in on the opposition, pulling out this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta.
Now the right-wing is calling these decisions by corporations “cancel culture” and the former president wants to combat them by launching boycotts of his own. Trump’s office put out a statement over the weekend calling for his supporters not to give money to the companies in question. It read in part, “now they are going big time with WOKE CANCEL CULTURE and our sacred elections. It is finally time for Republicans and Conservatives to fight back—we have more people than they do—by far!” Conservatives have been bemoaning cancel culture for years and it’s become their top issue ever since Joe Biden took office. Yet now, the most influential Republican politician is calling for boycotts on companies that he disagrees with, which is also “cancel culture.” These people will flip their positions on a dime, because it’s about satisfying short-term interests and not adhering to any sort of principle.
From over the vacation:
UH-OH: Rudy Giuliani Could Face Felony Charges
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, might be facing felony charges over comments he made to the Georgia state legislature last year. Georgia election official Fani Willis is researching whether it was illegal for Giuliani to assert his lies and conspiracy theories about the election as facts. Rudy said to the legislature, “you are the final arbiter of who the electors should be and whether the process is fair. The other way to look at it — it’s your responsibility if a false and fraudulent count is submitted to the United States government. And it’s clear the count you have now is false.” Much like with Trump, it’s unclear whether Giuliani will face charges or if the investigation will go nowhere. At the very least, it’s the latest example of MAGA actually standing for “Make Attorneys Get Attorneys.”
--More on the show:
--Despite the controversy that has emerged over how and whether to cover Donald Trump now that he is no longer President, it would be irresponsible to "ignore" him given the hold he still has over the Republican Party and, as a result, over American politics
--Joe Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explains to hosts on ABC and Fox News that infrastructure includes things like plumbing, since people need water to live, and electricity, since Americans now expect to have electricity just about 100% of the time
--Conspiracy theorists can't agree on when Donald Trump will be back in power, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell pointing to August, while televangelist Nathan French believes it will be April
--Right wing media host Ben Shapiro delivers what is potentially his most ignorant take yet on the issue of voter suppression, making an analogy to long lines at Disneyland
--Radical Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims that COVID "vaccine passports" are the "mark of the beast"
--In his last days in office, Donald Trump accidentally sanctioned the owner of an Italian restaurant
--Voicemail caller thanks David for helping her be in a better position to help her daughter with schoolwork
--On the Bonus Show: Vacation stories from David and Pat, including antimaskers, deep nose COVID tests, and much more
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