Unbelievable. The Trump campaign has almost certainly broken federal laws by spamming foreign nationals in multiple countries asking for campaign contributions. Not only is this insanely reckless and stupid, it was certain to be found out and clearly shows a collapsing campaign desperate for money. And it’s a given what happened. Trump, and his equally idiot children, overrode sane advice about fund-raising and spammed everyone, because the Trumps are political bozos who have no clue what presidential campaigns are about.
Could something so stupid be true? Yes.
Trump made some good points yesterday about trade deals and I thought, will he hammer this home or shoot himself in the foot again. And the answer is, in both feet. Honestly, I think he wants to lose.
Finally, imagine that instead of or in addition to buying email lists from more or less reputable aggregators, the Trumpkins just dumped their own email address books into the hopper and clicked “Send”.
Voila!
It’s because they’re so much smarter than all these consultants and politicians and lobbyists, see, and they don’t need any outside help or advice. They’re business geniuses, and they can do it all themselves
I’ve written campaign contribution tracking software for politicians. Donors must enter their name / address / occupation. Penalties are severe for having fake names, etc. Politicians check and recheck the contributions, and refund money if they think the source is odd or unverifiable. All these records are public. Only an idiot would try to game it.
Any national politician with a lick of sense doesn’t do things as mind-numbingly dumb as this because, among other things, the paper trail is huge and obvious. Can foreign nationals give money via PACs, etc. Maybe, but it’s dicey. But this was to the general Trump campaign. I can think of no other politician anywhere stupid enough to try this.
Complaints and lawsuits have already been filed against the Trump campaign.
Watchdog groups file FEC complaint over Trump emails to foreign pols
“Donald Trump should have known better,” Paul S. Ryan, the deputy executive director at the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement. “It is a no-brainer that it violates the law to send fundraising emails to members of a foreign government on their official foreign government email accounts, and yet, that’s exactly what Trump has done repeatedly.”