Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/11/all-donations-to-trumps-election-challenge-under-8k-will-go-to-his-pac-and-the-rnc.html
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I’d be reassured by Trump’s petty grifting as a sign that he really didn’t think he could stay in the White House, except that petty grifting is an automatic reflex for him.
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In other words, it is solidly in the financial interests of the RNC to continue this “voter fraud” charade even though they know damn well there’s no chance of finding anything that would hold up in court.
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Both Trump and the RNC have multiple reasons to go through with this that have nothing to do with changing the outcome of the election. Given that Trump has used campaign funds both to pay off personal lawsuits and host events at his own properties (funneling campaign money directly into his own pockets), he’s going to be making money off this, one way or another. The RNC not only gets funded, but gets to convince its voters that the election was stolen from them, and that newly fueled sense of grievance will keep the base fired up for years.
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That pic looks like Michael McKean portraying Trump while wearing the type of plastic hair worn by those people in those 90’s Duracell commercials.
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Assume for the sake of argument, that this isn’t just grift, and that Trump has a chance in hell of winning the legal arguments…
This would mean that Trump would literally owe his second term to a group of people willing to pony up large sums of cash. Not to the mass electorate, but to a select group of people who can be paid back in political favors.
Of course, those assumptions are bullshit, but it sounds like the groundwork for systematic bribery.
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Sheesh, maybe I should start one a “voter defense fund” for the other side since it’ll already be defended by tax dollars. And, y’know, donate some proceeds to bbs.boingboing crew so you’ll all be in on it.
Yes, I’m pandering for likes now.
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Why does he need donations for his legal challenge? He has the DOJ doing the work - we taxpayers are already paying for it.
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Trump has spent the last four years engaging in pretty systematic bribery. Contributors to his political funds (which are functionally indistinguishable from bribes, since he channels his political funds into his businesses whenever possible) have been given key government jobs which they, in turn, were able to use to their advantage. (E.g. DeJoy) He did the same with individuals and businesses that contributed to his inauguration fund (much of which seems to have gone straight into Trump coffers). He sold influence and input into official policy to those who were big spenders at his clubs. Not to mention: who knows what kind of benefits he gave to the Russian oligarchs and gangsters who laundered money through him… Anything that happened at this point would just be more of the same.
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Qanon is just a giant billboard saying “Exploitable morons this way!”
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I’m sure they don’t care if Trump is spending it on battling imaginary voter fraud or on more gold toilets. If there’s anything the past four years have proven it’s that Trump literally can do no wrong in the eyes of his followers, and they’ll gladly keep sacrificing all they have to their beloved Orange God unto death.
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Maybe it’s long past time for me to think of some nonsensical “BuT ThE cHiLdReN” campaign and start advertising it on faceborg and go buy 40 acres in the woods for a bunch of queer weirdos to live on.
And how much of that PAC money will end up in an offshore account accessible by the Trump family?
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@orenwolf - perhaps merge this thread with the comments thread on Xeni’s article posted immediately before this one (the one whose comments link goes back to the post/blog, anyway!)
It’s even worse than that, under the super PAC rules, Trump could even funnel cash directly to himself or his children as salary or consulting fees.
For example: https://publicintegrity.org/politics/donald-trump-army-super-pacs-maga-nonprofits/
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Someone should do a parody of this song. Change the lyrics from “Just one fix” to “Just one grift”.
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Some of the money was initially also being used for him to pay off his campaign debt.
I think this is the beginning of him using his cultish star-power to spend the next several years fleecing his followers with endless rallies and hints that he will run again, while using the money to pay lawyers to gum up and delay his various legal problems
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He’s really personifying the long-term R strategy of grabbing money from low and middle-income Americans and concentrating it in the hands of the wealthy.
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I’m sure he couldn’t help himself but double dip into those funds, too. Salaries and consulting fees and using them to pay for events at his properties (and whatever else he can think of).
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