Trump fans who thought they were donating only a few hundred dollars saw thousands of dollars disappear from their accounts out of their horror. Complaints poured in on banks and credit card companies from voters who believed they were victims of fraud. What turns out? While transferring a one-time donation to the then president’s campaign, some supporters gave permission to transfer the funds on a weekly basis without a doubt.
“Bandits,” a 78-year-old California man grumbles at the newspaper New York times. He transferred $ 990 in September. Then this same amount disappeared from his account seven more times. “I am retired. I cannot afford to pay such an amount.”
Some Trump supporters ran into financial trouble after realizing too late that their bank accounts had run out. A 63-year-old man from Kansas City wanted to transfer $ 500, but that inadvertently became about $ 3,000 in 30 days. As a result, the rent cannot be written off. “It felt like a scam.”
Multiply the contributions
In practice, the victims omitted something in the donation form. There it is automatically verified that the donation will be collected weekly. Later, another auto-checked box was added to the form, allowing people to double their contribution.
This approach is controversial. The Trump team and the Republican Party gave more than 530,000 times to online donors in the last 2.5 months of 2020 alone. The amount was $ 64.3 million (about 55 million euros), far more than the $ 5.6 million that Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign paid during that period.
Although Trump had to return a lot of money, he was able to profit from occasional donations. The American newspaper concluded that he had already taken out a large, interest-free loan in the crucial months leading up to the presidential election. He can then repay it with the money he raised from donors after the election.
‘He remains 100% loyal to Trump’
Several deceived supporters insisted they were not holding Trump personally responsible for donation issues. An 87-year-old man blamed WinRed, the platform Trump used to bring in $ 1.2 billion in donations. “I’m still 100% loyal to Donald Trump.”
