Donald Trumpā€™s campaign GoFundMe for hurricane relief raises a few red flags.

Donald Trumpā€™s campaign has begun raising money for hurricane reliefā€”but itā€™s not exactly clear how that money will be used.

Two weeks ago, the Trump campaign created a GoFundMe ā€œas an official response for MAGA supporters to offer their financial assistance to their fellow Americans impacted by Hurricane Helene,ā€ according to the fundraiser website.

A few days after the page went live, it was updated with a list of the charities that would receive the MAGA funds.

Fitting with Trumpā€™s smears against federal relief efforts, three of the four charities listedā€”Samaritanā€™s Purse, Water Mission, and Mtn2Sea Ministriesā€”are Christian or Evangelical NGOs. The fourth charity listed is the ā€œClinch Foundation,ā€ which is likely the Clinch Memorial Hospitalā€™s Foundation in Valdosta, Georgia.

The page did not, however, say how the campaign planned to disburse funds from the Trump campaignā€™s potā€”more than $7.7 million as of Monday. The fundraiser has received donations of $500,000 each from Republican megadonors Steve and Andrea Wynn and former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    If the money is never spent for hurricane relief, then this is straight up fraud and possibly money laundering (depending on how the money is finally spent). However, there are likely legal time limits set, so they could distribute some funds at some distant time in the future to avoid prosecution.

    Weā€™ve already seen this play out nearly to the end with the ā€œWe build the Wallā€ graft. One participant is in prison for 4 years already. Steve Bannonā€™s trial for this crime is upcoming later this year. source