News

Trump Campaign Forced To Refund $121 Million To Donors After Using Deceptive Techniques

A new report found that the campaign of former President Donald Trump refunded $121 million in unintentional donations in 2020. As Joe Biden began to eclipse Trump in campaign donations, the GOP team behind the ex President instituted deceptive  ways to increase revenue from supporters.

While political donation refunds are standard for people who exceed the individual contribution maximum, the Trump operation refunded 10.7% of the money they raised on the website WinRed in 2020. In that same window, donations to Biden were refunded 2.2% of the time. Bank fraud cases from WinRed accounted for as much as 3% of all claims made in the United States in 2020, which is exceedingly high for one company. The increase in refunds and fraud claims came as a result of pre-checked boxes allowing for recurring donations as well as secondary donation check boxes.

The donation check boxes used by the Trump campaign in their emails were bright yellow with flashy, directed language in bold and the specifics of their donation in smaller, lighter font.

Contributors who donate one or two times to the Trump campaign later discovered they were unintentionally opted-in to recurring payments. In the New York Times report, experts reviewed the several increasingly predatory recurring donation markers showing that the opt-out button became buried under large, often-capitalized text.

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!

A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.

WinRed, the largest GOP donation company, has since come out calling their refund system “exceptionally easy.”

Brandon Mumei

Recent Posts

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Becomes First GOP Congressman To Call Situation In Gaza ‘Genocide’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) dubbed the humanitarian conflict in Gaza a “genocide” in a…

3 hours ago

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie Slams Speaker Mike Johnson For Blocking Effort To Release Epstein Files

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) are leading a bipartisan push to…

3 hours ago

Trump Administration Invests Millions In Creating Mega Database Of Americans’ Private Data

The Trump Administration is working with tech company Palantir to collect all unclassified information about…

24 hours ago

Democrats’ Approval Rating Plummets To Lowest Level In Decades, New Poll Finds

Democrats' approval rating has plummeted to 33 percent, according to a new poll from the…

1 day ago

Trump Nominates Hooters-Loving MAGA Commentator Nick Adams As Ambassador To Malaysia

Nick Adams, an Australian-born conservative author and influencer, recently became President Donald Trump's pick for…

1 day ago

After Cancellation Of ‘The Late Show,’ FCC Approves $8 Billion Skydance-Paramount Merger

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 23 permitted Skydance Media to move forward with…

1 day ago