Trump raised funds through morally incorrect ways in US election 2020: Reports
Story highlights
Reports claim Trump’s presidential campaign used pre-checked boxes and unclear design to gather millions of dollars from donors through fundraising emails
The former US President Donald Trump arranged an enormous amount of funds for his grand US election 2020 campaign. He has managed to stay in the headlines even after losing the election, and this time he is in the news for morally incorrect collection of funds.
Reports claim Trump’s presidential campaign used pre-checked boxes and unclear design to gather millions of dollars from donors through fundraising emails.
The campaign and this idea was the brainchild of a for-profit organisation, WinRed. While the practice is completely legal, it is usually hailed as “unfair, unethical and inappropriate”.
Also read | 'Lot of explaining to do': Trump advised to stay away from Matt Gaetz amid his sex scandal
The revelation was made by The New York Times that described this “dark pattern” as a practice of digital marketing that “should be in textbooks of what you shouldn’t do” in politics.
“The recurring donations swelled Mr Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed,” the Times reported.
As per reports, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee gathered more than 530,000 refunds with returns of $64.3 million. Joe Biden, who the election, returned 37,000 online refunds which were worth $5.6 million.
“In effect, the money that Mr Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race,” the Times wrote.
Trump’s campaign, however, has not given a straight answer about the same.
“Our campaign was built by the hardworking men and women of America and cherishing their investments was paramount to anything else we did,” Jason Miller, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, was quoted by the Times.