Let’s call this couple George and Linda Smith.
According to this article:
- Older people are swindled out of more than $3 billion each year.
- More than 3.5 million older adults are victims of financial exploitation each year.
- Seniors targeted by fraudsters suffer an average loss of $34,200.
I’m reasonably certain these statistics do not include seniors targeted by this fraudster:
According to Ballotpedia.org:
“Save America is a leadership PAC (political action committee) created by President Donald Trump on November 9, 2020, following the 2020 presidential election.”
This article:
States that:
“Former U.S. President Donald Trump raised $250 million in donations in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election for an organization ostensibly intended to fund court challenges in support of his false claims that the election was fraudulent. Instead, he directed that money to an unrelated political action committee, or PAC, according to congressional investigators.”
“The committee said some of the money Trump’s campaign raised in the weeks after the election went to paying down campaign debt and into the coffers of the Republican National Committee. A large amount also went to a new leadership PAC called Save America, which was formed three days after the election.”
“It was grift, pure and simple, but on a massive scale,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, in a prepared statement. “Donald Trump was not content to just ignore the will of the American people and attempt to steal the 2020 election in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy. He was determined to make a lot of money doing it.”
And many of those “American people,” according to this article:
Are “retirees” like the couple pictured above.
The scammed couple pictured above.
And the money continues to pour into Save America from retirees, and people of all ages.
OpenSecrets.org states that as of June 30, 2022, Trump’s Save America PAC had raised almost $104 million in 2021-2022.
Let’s do the math: $104 million divided by 20 months.
That’s averages out to $5.2 million per month.
Most – perhaps all – of those donors think they’re supporting Trump’s bid for the White House in 2024. They believe he’s their man, the only man who can Make America Great Again, the only man who can SAVE AMERICA. And even if it’s only $5 or $20 or $30, they’ll give what they can to help Trump win.
They donate money, and they also buy stuff like this:
Here’s the problem:
Trump isn’t running for president in 2024.
Not yet.
And until Trump declares that he’s running for president in 2024, he can spend the Save America PAC money pretty much any damn way he wants to.
And he is.
A sampling from this article:
“The money in the Save America PAC, unlike money contributed to a standard campaign committee, can be used to benefit Trump in innumerable ways. Memberships at golf clubs. Travel. Rallies. Even payments directly to Trump himself, as long as he declares it as income.”
From Politico:
“According to Save America PAC’s new filing, tens of thousands of dollars were paid to law firms representing top Trump aides who have gotten subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill.”
In addition…
“Out of $1.35 million the PAC spent on ‘like-minded causes and endorsed candidates,’ $1 million went to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows’ new nonprofit organization, the Conservative Partnership Institute.”
And back to the June 14, 2022 Washington Post article, and more Save America spending:
- $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, an organization that aims to be the core advocate for Trump’s political vision.
- More than $200,000 to hotels owned by the Trump Organization.
- $5 million to the company that ran Trump’s January 6 rally outside the White House.
The article goes on to note:
“Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle (pictured), ‘was paid for the introduction she gave at the speech on January 6. She received compensation for that’ – to the tune of $60,000. The speech was a little more than two minutes long.”
Did George and Linda Smith know the money they took from their retirement savings was going toward paying Kimberly Guilfoyle close to $30,000 per minute to speak?
I doubt it.
I also doubt that the Smiths know about this recent Save America spending:
“Donald Trump’s Save America political action committee…gave $60,000 to a fashion designer associated with former First Lady Melania Trump.
“USA Today reported that according to the Federal Elections Commission, from April 7 to June 24 of this year the Save America PAC made six payments totaling $60,000 to Hervé Pierre Braillard, the French designer who styled Melania during the Trump presidency.
“…nearly 2.5 million people donated to the Save America PAC, which formed just days after Joe Biden’s victory. Of those 2.5 million, two-thirds of them stated their occupation as retired. Instead of cracking down on voter fraud, however, some of the retirees’ money was used to settle the bill with a fashion designer.”
I wonder if ole Hervé is the one who “styled” this memorable garment of Melania’s:
I’m betting that Save America also paid for this recent update:
“It appears that Trump’s 757 is airworthy and ready for campaigning once again…the substitution of the ‘T’ for the American flag on the tail gives us a good clue that Trump is not ready to step away from political life.”
Here’s the new paint job with the flag on the tail:
The article is referencing Trump’s Boeing 757 that he narcissistically calls “Trump Force One.” It’s the plane he used during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Back in 2021, the plane that, according to this article:
“…today it sits idle on an airport ramp in Orange County, New York, about 60 miles north of Manhattan…One engine is missing parts. The other is shrink-wrapped in plastic.”
“Flight records accessed by CNN show the 757 hasn’t been flown at all since Inauguration Day.”
That would be Inauguration Day, 2016.
At some point, Trump decided off with the old and on with the new, and in March 2022 we learned this:
Trump’s Save America PAC blasted a question to supporters:
“DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE NEW TRUMP FORCE ONE?”
“‘Do you remember Trump Force One?’ the email reads. ‘Before becoming the greatest President of all time, I traveled the Country in my plane, known as Trump Force One. I have a very important update on my plane but I need to trust that you won’t share it with anyone: my team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One.’”
The article noted, “The box making a donation recur month-to-month was pre-checked.”
(In Trump World, the box making a donation recur month-to-month is always pre-checked.)
Did George and Linda Smith and others donate towards Trump’s new plane?
The above July 2022 Live and Let’s Fly article says now it’s back on with the old plane, and forget about “building” the new one.
Estimated cost to fix the old plane: high six figures.
This begs the question:
Trump has now spiffed up his old plane, so what happened to the money that George and Linda Smith and others donated back in March to buy him a “BRAND NEW Trump Force One”?
Maybe the Save American PAC repurposed the money to update the old plane?
Because after all, says the December 2020 Washington Post article:
“‘…there’s no prohibition on how they use the money.’”
“Donors to the committee, of course, probably don’t know any of this. Yes, there’s some fine print once you get to the contribution page explaining that the money given will go to Save America up to a certain point, but the impression one gets from the campaign’s voluminous emails is that the money will go to Trump’s dubious efforts to wrench a second term from the jaws of electoral defeat.
“What has obviously happened so far is Trump and his team have figured out a way to parlay his base’s concerns about the election – concerns Trump has been hyping for months – into a well-stocked bank account with few limitations on how it is used.”
And let’s not overlook this:
The day after the Department of Justice – with a valid search warrant – entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, Trump’s Save America PAC sent an email with this headline,
“BREAKING: THE FBI RAIDED PRESIDENT TRUMP’S HOME: MAR-A-LAGO”
Only Trump and his toadies would figure out how to monetize Trump’s criminal acts.
The email included that personal touch, without which no Trump communication would be complete:
“Please rush in a donation IMMEDIATELY to publicly stand with me against this NEVERENDING WITCH HUNT.”
And – unfortunately – people do keep rushing in donations:
People like George and Linda Smith.
The next time they and others like them walk over to their computer or pick up their phones and see this or something like it…
…will they reach for their credit cards and checkbooks?
It makes me sad to think how many nice people – retired and otherwise – are continuing to get scammed by the greatest con man of all times.
But folks, I have to say it:
Now…
I Hate Houseguests 