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TO RETURN: The Trump campaign has had to return more than a billion kronor to donors who were duped into making repeat payments. Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
A poll by the New York Times shows how the Trump campaign prompted multiple donors to make repeated donations to the campaign. In total, the campaign has had to repay more than one billion crowns from donors.
In a lengthy case from the major US newspaper New York Times, several appear to believe they were tricked into giving large monetary gifts to former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns.
According to the newspaper, several people who chose to donate money to the campaign did not realize that they agreed to make repeat donations. The information that the amount of the donation they chose to give had to be discounted once a week and not just once, should have been well hidden from donors.
“Bandits! I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all this damn money,” says Victor Amelino (78), who donated $ 990 in early September, and was discounted seven times for a total of almost $ 8,000.
– I felt like a scam
The newspaper writes, among other things, about cancer patient Stacy Blatt (63) who had heard the warnings of conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh about how badly the Trump campaign needed money. Blatt, who according to the newspaper lives on less than $ 1,000 a month, opted to donate as much as his wallet could handle: $ 500.
– It felt like a scam, says Brother Russell Blatts to the newspaper.
SEA OF PEOPLE: Donald Trump gathered thousands of spectators for public meetings during the 2020 presidential campaign. Here from Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina. Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
State records show this was his first political donation, but it wasn’t his last, due to the way the Trump campaign had set up the donation form. By the next day, a new $ 500 was deducted from Blatt’s account.
The same thing happened every week, without the 63-year-old realizing it, and until his bank account was emptied and frozen.
Finally, with the help of his brother, he discovered that the Trump campaign had deducted $ 3,000 from his account in less than 30 days.
– This is unfair, unethical and inappropriate, says Ira Rheingold, who is the general manager of the consumer association National Association of Consumer Advocates.
The newspaper has offered Gary Coby, digital director of the fundraising campaign, an interview regarding the case, but he has refused.
I had to pay more than a billion
In total, the Trump campaign had to repay 10.7 percent of all funds raised through the WinRed donor platform. At the time of writing this report, this corresponds to more than one billion Norwegian crowns ($ 122 million).
By comparison, Biden’s campaign had to repay 2.2 percent of the contributions they received through the ActBlue platform, which corresponds to almost 180 million crowns ($ 21 million).
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The New York Times has spoken with several bank representatives who claim that Trump campaign refunds sometimes accounted for between one and three percent of all fraud claims that banks processed.
It became more difficult to detect as the elections approached.
The newspaper writes that the activists had to “wade through” a letter of responsibility in small print and manually print that they agreed to the amount being repeatedly deducted.
As the election approached, the Trump campaign made the statement of responsibility even less visible, according to polls by the New York Times. At this point, a second pre-election was entered in the liability statement that doubled the amount of the donation entered.
