Donald Trump is defined in large part by his dishonesty, but the lies that appear in the former president’s fundraising appeals are often hysterical, even by his standards. The Washington Post this week highlighted Republicans’ willingness to use “false.” [and] inflammatory messages to rake in campaign cash,” adding, “Some recent pitches have raised eyebrows even among longtime Trump observers and advisers.”
It was against this backdrop that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
The fundraising message, which included an offer for a $47 mug, told potential donors: “I want you to remember what they did to me. They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail and took my mug shot.
The fact that the former president was photographed as part of the legal process was not particularly controversial — Trump, a private citizen, was treated like any other crime suspect charged in Fulton County — so there was no apparent need to use the mugshot reference in the photo. In Capital Letters.
Nevertheless, the local report further noted: “There is no evidence that Trump was tortured or abused when he surrendered at the Fulton jail after being indicted on thirteen felony counts last August. But it is just the latest of many lies, exaggerations and half-truths that the former president has uttered over the years about the Fulton case, District Attorney Fani Willis and other prosecutors who have scrutinized him in recent years.”
It’s also a timely reminder that the presumptive Republican Party nominee insists on always being seen as a victim, especially in the rare cases where he may be held accountable for his alleged misdeeds.
But taking a step back, it’s also worth highlighting the fundraising controversies that have become a staple of his political operation. For Election Day 2020, for example, the Republican and his team set up a standard online donor system: By adding easily overlooked pre-checked boxes and opaque fine print, the then-president’s operation was able to defraud unsuspecting donors for months.
As The New York Times later reported, banks and credit card companies were soon inundated “with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters over donations they did not intend to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.” Some donors even “canceled their cards” just to stop recurring payments to Trump.
After Election Day 2020, the Republican and his team begged donors to contribute to his “Official Election Defense Fund,” which did not actually exist.
Now, still hoping to separate his followers from their money, Trump and his team are fabricating “torture” claims and sending out fundraising appeals, falsely claiming that President Joe Biden authorized the FBI to to kill him at Mar-a-Lago.
If the former president respected his supporters more, this simply wouldn’t happen. But Trump too often sees members of his base as easily fooled targets.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
