An online fundraiser for former President Donald Trump has racked up $84,354 out of a $355 million target in just 24 hours following the final judgement in his civil fraud trial in New York.
On Friday, Trump was fined roughly $355 million by New York Judge Arthur Engoron following a monthslong trial. The trial was to determine how much Trump and his associates would pay after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit in September 2022 accusing the former president, his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, The Trump Organization and two firm executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney of fraudulently overvaluing assets to secure more favorable bank loans and taxation deals.
The former president was also barred from doing business in New York for three years. Other defendants in the case also faced financial penalties and were banned from doing business in New York for periods of time. Meanwhile, Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, has denied any wrongdoing and claims the case was politically motivated.
Any Trump supporters out there, I want you to think about something.
One of the reasons you originally supported Trump is that he was supposedly rich enough to fund his own campaign. Then you sent him - supposedly a man worth $10 billion at one point - piles of money. He begged you for it over and over. He needed your help to fight the system, to “stop the steal,” to “make America great again,” and you gladly opened your wallets without ever wondering why a billionaire needed your money and couldn’t fund his campaigns on his own.
That billionaire now has a GoFundMe. Roll that around in your head. He has a GoFundMe because he can’t (or won’t) spend his own earned income as a billionaire real-estate tycoon to settle judgments against him that - by his own claims - amount to roughly 1/20th his net worth.
Why? Try to explain why in a way that doesn’t make you sound like the world’s biggest sucker and the victim of a con artist.
If those Trump supporters could read they would be very upset
Trump the billionaire welfare queen
Just like all billionaires. Except that he’s not a billionaire.
Never was. He’s pretty much always owed more than he has. He bankrupted a casino, lied about the value of his properties in both directions, inflating value got him loans against them and devaluing them had him owe less in taxes and more. He has never been the player he pretends to be. The real billionaires and more don’t really spend time in the spot light (for the most part), there are exceptions but the ones really running things don’t like the sunlight.
Beyond that, the entire GoFundMe is against the terms and services of the EULA on GoFundMe. You aren’t allowed to raise money for “alleged or actual crimes,” since this is a legal judgement, it’s not just an alleged crime. It fits the definition of an actual crime.
The golden Trump shoes are actually legal money laundering.
Campaign finance laws
How do campaign finance laws prevent him from spending his own money on his campaigns?
They don’t. But, truth is, it’s not really a smart financial move to use too much of your personal assets to run for office because if you don’t win, it was all a waste. It is smarter to get others to pay for it for you. Unless you actually have a billion dollars and then spending even 50 million on a campaign is nothing and you’ll have earned that back in interest alone in short order.
Yeah, but that kind of nullifies his campaign argument that he doesn’t need anyone’s financial help, doesn’t it.
I didn’t say otherwise. Obviously it negates it and those of us who have been paying attention over the past few decades could have and did tell the world he isn’t who he brags about being.
Candidates are free to sink as much of their own money into a campaign as they wish.