For months during his 2020 campaign, former President Donald Trump and the Republican party's fundraising arm preyed upon the unconditional trust of his supporters with incessant emails, texts, and calls soliciting donations.
Many of these messages were designed to guilt supporters, claiming their name would be left off a top supporter list to be delivered to the former President or claiming that Trump was disappointed in them.
With around a year and a half left before the 2022 midterms, the Republican party is once again soliciting donations by preying on the loyalty of Trump's base.
Donors to the National Republican Congressional Committee are guided to a pre-checked recurring donation box that the donor has to uncheck in order to avoid recurring fees.
It comes with a bizarre message.
Formatted like one of Trump's tweets, it reads:
"We need to know we haven't lost you to the Radical Left. If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR & sided with the Dems. CHECK this box and we can win back the House and get Trump to run in 2024."
The photo comes just days after the New York Times reported that the Republican party's donations processor, WinRed, made weekly recurring contributions the default for donors in the 2020 election cycle, resulting in some—like hospice care patient Stacy Blatt—unwittingly sending thousands more in donations to the Trump campaign than they'd intended. In Blatt's case, his bank accounts were depleted and his rent payments bounced.
In response to that report, Trump insisted these donations were "done legally," and said in a statement:
"Before our two campaigns, 2016 and 2020, Republicans would always lose small dollar donations. Now we win, or do very well, because we are the Party of Working Americans, and we beat the Democrats at their own game. We learned from liberal ActBlue — and now we're better than they are!"
The most recent screen shot of the NRCC's donor page once again revealed the Republican fundraising arm's manipulation of its own voters.
People were astounded that the Republican party found it acceptable.
Nevertheless, some Republican lawmakers—like conspiracy theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia—have already received millions for their reelection efforts.
