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Former President Donald Trump’s political committees continue to precheck boxes that’ll make supporters’ contributions recur.
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On Tuesday, an email from a Trump political committee provided potential donors with the opportunity to increase their impact by 400% in the fight to “save America from Joe Biden and his socialist allies.”
But a closer look at the fine print suggests that it may have been the donors who’d be on the hook for multiplying their gift’s impact—unless they unchecked boxes that’d already been ticked to make their contribution recur.
The solicitation comes even after four state attorneys general launched investigations in May into campaigns’ use of prechecked boxes for recurring donations and the FEC asked Congress to ban the practice. The sudden regulatory interest was the result of a New York Times investigative report on the practice, published in April.
Despite the backlash—and the fact that the Trump campaign had to refund 10.7% of its online contributions last year—Trump political groups are continuing to require donors to opt-out if they don’t want to make their gifts recurring.
A representative from Save America has not responded to an inquiry.
On Tuesday, a Trump political committee sent supporters a fundraising email. The link it directed potential donors to included a pre-checked option to make the donations recurring for four months.
SAVE AMERICA JFC
I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the
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I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., just a couple miles from my home. When Trump won the election and refused to divest his business, I stayed on the story, starting a newsletter called 1100 Pennsylvania (named after the hotel’s address) and contributed to Vanity Fair, Politico and NBC News. I’m still interested in Trump, but I’ve broadened my focus to follow the money connected to other politicians as well—both Republicans and Democrats.