rumitoid

President Trump is a con man. He conned people into giving to his now-defunct foundation only to use the donations for personal expenses. He conned people into spending more money than they could afford on the now-dissolved Trump University. He conned lenders into subsidizing his floundering real estate projects. The list goes on, and, as is made clear on a near-daily basis, it’s not limited to Trump’s life as a private citizen.

The pettiest grift of Trump’s presidency may be a scheme that was recently uncovered by Popular Information’s Judd Legum. As Legum notes, the Trump campaign has held at least 15 online contests in which the winner was promised a meal with Trump. Many of them also promised travel accommodations. All supporters had to do to enter the contests, which were promoted heavily on social media, was donate to the campaign. “I just saw the most recent list of Patriots who have contributed to win a trip to meet me in Chicago on October 28th, and I noticed you STILL haven’t entered,” read one email regarding a contest for a supporter and a guest to have lunch with Trump in Chicago.

This may sound great for Trump supporters, but there’s one problem: despite the untold sums of money raised off the contests, no one appears to have actually sat down for a meal with the president.

The campaign certainly hasn’t been able to provide any proof. After Legum’s original piece on the potential s**m published, Trump campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh tweeted that “[p]eople win the contests each time,” but offered no additional evidence. Nor have any of the “top supporters” and “patriots” who entered any of the 15 contests come forward with pictures or other proof that they sat down for a meal with Trump.

However, it does appear some people have met the president before rallies as a result of winning contests, but the promise of grabbing breakfast, lunch, or dinner with him seems to be a sham.
If it is, it’s a pretty clear case of fraud. “You’re raising campaign cash, you’re lying to people. If you obtain money from people through false pretenses that’s a violation of federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes,” Richard Painter, a lawyer in the Bush White House and frequent Trump critic, told Newsweek on Wednesday. Legum also points out that it’s in several states where contests were held it’s illegal to not disclose the names of the winners.

Hours after Newsweek‘s story ran on Wednesday, the Daily Caller published a piece attempting to prove the contests were not s**ms, calling the idea they were a “conspiracy theory.” The outlet highlighted two contest winners who were able to take pictures with Trump, although neither dined with the president, as the contests promised.

“While the president did not attend the buffet breakfast as the contest details would suggest, Kamis was able to mingle with the likes of Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Elizabeth Pipko before being ushered into another room to meet the president and have their photo taken together,” the story notes in an essential admission the contest was a s**m.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-campaign-s**m-contests-meal-with-president-909188/

woodguru

A flood of trump supporters will rush to the rescue to lie for the king, of course there will be no pictures or evidence that supports things like where the restaurant was and the kind of evidence there would be if he had had breakfast or lunch with dozens of "winners"

MaryGrace Loc: New England

Thank you, I didn't think there was anybody here who wasn't taken in by Trump.

rumitoid

Lol. My amazement is that anyone, for wh**ever reason, supports him.

Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

rumitoid

That makes me very sad, my hope for America to continue in its great ideals and promise of freedom is diminished. True patriots, to me, would be outraged by that man.