[OldBill]

How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations

Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked. Complaints to banks and credit card companies soared. But the money helped keep Donald Trump’s struggling campaign afloat.




Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.
It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.
What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.



“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”
But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.



Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.
As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.
The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated withfraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

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“Bandits!” said Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, who made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via WinRed. It recurred seven more times — adding up to almost $8,000. “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”
The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.

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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.



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.



Image



Russell Blatt’s brother, Stacy, who was a supporter of Mr. Trump, died of cancer in February. Credit...Katie Currid for The New York Times










Marketers have long used ruses like prechecked boxes to steer American consumers into unwanted purchases, like magazine subscriptions. But consumer advocates said deploying the practice on voters in the heat of a presidential campaign — at such volume and with withdrawals every week — had much more serious ramifications.
“It’s unfair, it’s unethical and it’s inappropriate,” said Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
Harry Brignull, a user-experience designer in London who coined the term “dark patterns” for manipulative digital marketing practices, said the Trump team’s techniques were a classic of the “deceptive design” genre.
“It should be in textbooks of what you shouldn’t do,” he said.
Political strategists, digital operatives and campaign finance experts said they could not recall ever seeing refunds at such a scale. Mr. Trump, the R.N.C. and their shared accounts refunded far more money to online donors in the last election cycle than every federal Democratic candidate and committee in the country combined.




Over all, the Trump operation refunded 10.7 percent of the money it raised on WinRed in 2020; the Biden operation’s refund rate on ActBlue, the parallel Democratic online donation-processing platform, was 2.2 percent, federal records show.


How Refunds to Trump Donors Soared in 2020

Refunds are shown as the percentage of money received by each operation to date via WinRed and ActBlue.

Trump

By September, the Trump operation began to have online donations recur weekly by default.

10%

By June, the Trump operation and the R.N.C. had added a second pre-filled check box.

8

Around March 2020, the pre-filled check box first appeared on Mr. Trump’s online donation form.

6

4

Biden

2

Jan. 2020

Feb.

March

April

May






















The two prechecked yellow boxes would be a fixture for the rest of the campaign. And so would a much larger volume of refunds.
Until then, the Biden and Trump operations had nearly identical refund rates on WinRed and ActBlue in 2020: 2.18 percent for Mr. Trump and 2.17 percent for Mr. Biden.



But from the day after Mr. Trump’s birthday through the rest of the year, Mr. Biden’s refund rate remained nearly flat, at 2.24 percent, while Mr. Trump’s soared to 12.29 percent.



In early September — just after learning that it had been outraised by the Biden operation in August by more than $150 million — the Trump campaign became even more aggressive.
It changed the language in the first yellow box to withdraw recurring donations every week instead of every month. Suddenly, some contributors were unwittingly making as many as half a dozen donations in 30 days: the intended contribution, the “money bomb” and four more weekly withdrawals.

Image















“You don’t realize it until after everything is already in motion,” said Bruce Turner, 72, of Gilbert, Ariz., whose wife’s $1,000 donation in early October became $6,000 by Election Day. They were refunded $5,000 the week after the election, records show.
Around the same time, officials who fielded fraud claims at bank and credit card companies noticed a surge in complaints against the Trump campaign and WinRed.
“It started to go absolutely wild,” said one fraud investigator with Wells Fargo. “It just became a pattern,” said another at Capital One. A consumer representative for USAA, which primarily serves military families, recalled an older veteran who discovered repeated WinRed charges from donating to Mr. Trump only after calling to have his balance read to him by phone.



The unintended payments busted credit card limits. Some donors canceled their cards to avoid recurring payments. Others paid overdraft fees to their bank.



All the banking officials said they recalled only a negligible number of complaints against ActBlue, the Democratic donation platform, although there are online review sites that feature heated complaints about unwanted charges and customer service.
The Trump operation was not done modifying the yellow boxes. Soon, the fact that donations would be withdrawn weekly was taken out of boldface type, according to archived versions of the president’s website, and moved beneath other bold text.

Image















As the campaign’s financial problems became increasingly acute, the yellow boxes became dizzyingly more complex.
By October there were sometimes nine lines of boldface text — with ALL-CAPS words sprinkled in — before the disclosure that there would be weekly withdrawals. As many as eight more lines of boldface text came before the second additional donation disclaimer.

Image













Even political professionals fell prey to the boxes.
Jeff Kropf, the executive director of the Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation, a conservative group, said he had been “very careful” to uncheck recurring boxes — yet he missed the “money bomb” and got a second charge anyway.




“Until WinRed fixes their sneaky way of adding additional contributions to ************ like they did to me, I won’t use them again,” he said.
Mr. Brignull, the user-experience designer who also serves as an expert witness in legal cases involving misleading advertising, noted that a Consumer Rights Directive in Europe prohibits companies from deploying a defaulted opt-in tactic for recurring payments.
“It is very easy for the eye to skip over,” he said. “The only really meaningful information in that box is buried.”



Image



Banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints last fall from the president’s supporters about donations they had not intended to make.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times










The ‘Gary and Gerrit’ operation

By last summer, the Biden campaign had begun outraising Mr. Trump’s team, and the president was hopping mad. For months, years even, his advisers had been telling him how he had built a one-of-a-kind financial juggernaut. So why, Mr. Trump demanded to know, was he off the television airwaves just months before the election in critical battleground states like Michigan?
“Where did all the money go?” he would lash out, according to two senior advisers.
Inside the Trump re-election headquarters in Northern Virginia, the pressure was building to wring ever more money out of his supporters.



Perhaps nowhere was that pressure more acute than on Mr. Trump’s expansive and lucrative digital operation. That was the unquestioned domain of Gary Coby, a 30-something strategist whose title — digital director — and microscopic public profile belied his immense influence on the Trump operation, especially online.



A veteran of the R.N.C. and the 2016 race, Mr. Coby had the confidence, trust and respect of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who unofficially oversaw the 2020 campaign, according to people familiar with the campaign’s operations. Mr. Kushner and the rest of the campaign leadership gave Mr. Coby, whose talents are recognized across the Republican digital industry, wide latitude to raise money however he saw fit.
That meant almost endless optimization and experimentation, sometimes pushing the traditional boundaries. The Trump team repeatedly used phantom donation matches and faux deadlines to loosen donor wallets (“1000% offer: ACTIVATED…For the NEXT HOUR”). Eventually it ratcheted up the volume of emails it sent until it was barraging supporters with an average of 15 per day for all of October and November 2020.
Mr. Coby,who declined an interview request for this article,outlined his philosophical approach when offering advice to other ambitious young strategists after he was named to the American Association of Political Consultants’ “40 under 40” list in 2017: “Asking for forgiveness is easier than permission.”
The Trump Investigations

---

Card 1 of 8Numerous inquiries. Since Donald J. Trump left office, the former president has been facing civil and criminal investigations across the country into his business dealings and political activities. Here is a look at the notable inquiries:



Jan. 6 inquiries. A House select committee and federal prosecutors are investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and examining the possible culpability of a broad range of figures — including Mr. Trump and his allies — involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a series of public hearings, the committee appears to be laying out evidence that could allow prosecutors to indict Mr. Trump.



White House documents investigation. The Justice Department has begun a grand jury investigation into the handling of classified materials that ended up at Mr. Trump’s Florida home. The investigation is focused on the discovery by the National Archives that Mr. Trump had taken 15 boxes of documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago when he left office.



Manhattan criminal case. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, intentionally submitted false property values to potential lenders. But new signs have emerged that the inquiry may be losing steam.



New York State civil inquiry. The New York attorney general’s office has been assisting with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation while conducting its own civil inquiry into some of the same conduct. The civil inquiry is focused on whether Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets were part of a pattern of fraud or were simply Trumpian showmanship.



Georgia criminal inquiry. Mr. Trump himself is under scrutiny in Georgia, where the district attorney of Fulton County has been investigating whether he and others criminally interfered with the 2020 election results in the state. Several allies of the former president, including Rudy Giuliani, Lindsey Graham and John Eastman, have been subpoenaed.



Westchester County criminal investigation. The district attorney’s office in Westchester County, N.Y., appears to be focused at least in part on whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of a golf course, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, to reduce its taxes.



Trump’s social media merger. A federal grand jury in Manhattan has issued subpoenas regarding the merger of Mr. Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The merger has also been under investigation by financial regulators for months.









Mr. Coby’s partner in fund-raising was Mr. Lansing, the president of WinRed, which had been created in 2019 as a centralized platform for G.O.P. digital contributions after prominent Republicans feared they were falling irreparably behind Democrats and ActBlue.
The Trump and WinRed operations had been closely aligned since the platform’s inception — Mr. Trump reportedly helped come up with the firm’s name — and the president’s re-election operation amounted to a majority of all of WinRed’s business last cycle, when it processed more than $2 billion.
Inside the Trump orbit, “Gary and Gerrit” became something of a shorthand term for Mr. Coby and Mr. Lansing, according to multiple senior Trump campaign and White House officials.



The two strategists were already well acquainted: They had worked together at the R.N.C. in 2016, when Mr. Lansing oversaw its digital operations and Mr. Coby was the director of advertising. And they were business partners in Opn Sesame, a text messaging platform, which Mr. Lansing co-founded and served as chief operating officer for; WinRed said he stepped away from its day-to-day operations in early 2019.



Top Trump officials said they did not know specifically who had conceived of using the weekly recurring prechecked boxes — or who had designed them in the increasingly complex blizzard of text. But they said virtually all online fund-raising decisions were a “Gary and Gerrit” production.
“The campaigns determine their own fund-raising strategies and make their own decisions on how to use these tools,” Mr. Lansing said in WinRed’s statement.
Unlike ActBlue, which is a nonprofit, WinRed is a for-profit company. It makes its money by taking 30 cents of every donation, plus 3.8 percent of the amount given. WinRed was paid more than $118 million from federal committees the last election cycle; even after paying credit card fees and expenses like payroll and rent, the profits are believed to be significant.
WinRed even made money off donations that were refunded by keeping the fees it charged on each transaction, a practice it said was standard in the industry, citing PayPal; ActBlue said it does not keep fees for refunded donations. WinRed’s cut of the Trump operation’s refunds would amount to roughly $5 million before expenses. (Archived versions of WinRed’s website show it added a disclaimer saying it would keep its fees around when refunds surged.)
There is another reason Mr. Trump’s refund rates were so high: His campaign accepted millions of dollars above the legal cap, a problem exacerbated by recurring donations. A pianist in New York, for instance, contributed more than 100 times in the months leading up to Election Day, going far past the legal limit of $2,800. She was refunded $87,716.50 — three weeks after Election Day.
While every large-scale campaign winds up accepting and returning some donations above the legal limit, including Mr. Biden’s, the Trump situation stands out. Records show that Mr. Biden’s campaign committee issued roughly $47,000 in refunds larger than $5,000 after Election Day; Mr. Trump’s campaign issued more than $7 million.



Trump officials attributed the excessive donations to enthusiastic supporters and said the surge in postelection complaints was a result of losing the election, not of the recurring donation tactics.



The use of prechecked boxes is not unprecedented in politics, and WinRed said it was simply adopting tactics that ActBlue put in place years ago.ActBlue said in a statement that it had begun to phase out prechecked recurring boxes “unless groups were explicitly asking for recurring contributions.” Some prominent Democratic groups, including both congressional campaign committees, continue to precheck recurring boxes regardless of that guidance. Still, Democratic refund rates were only a small fraction of the Trump campaign’s last year.
Republicans widely hailed WinRed as one of the standout successes of the 2020 cycle, and in a memo last October the company declared itself the “trusted, recognizable platform” for Republican giving. “Scam PACs, shady operators and outright fraud is unfortunately a common occurrence in the online political donation world — particularly on the right,” the memo stated. “WinRed helps civilize the Wild West of the G.O.P. donation ecosystem.”
But for some Trump supporters like Ron Wilson, WinRed is a scam artist. Mr. Wilson, an 87-year-old retiree in Illinois, made a series of small contributions last fall that he thought would add up to about $200; by December, federal records show, WinRed and Mr. Trump’s committees had withdrawn more than 70 separate donations from Mr. Wilson worth roughly $2,300.
“Predatory!” Mr. Wilson said of WinRed. Like multiple other donors interviewed, though, he held Mr. Trump himself blameless, telling The Times, “I’m 100 percent loyal to Donald Trump.”
Trump was just the beginning

All told, the Trump and party operation raised $1.2 billion on WinRed, and refunded roughly 10 percent of it.
Whatever blowback it received, WinRed was not deterred. Soon after the November election ended, the two Republican Senate incumbents in Georgia, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, deployed prechecked weekly recurring boxes in advance of their January runoffs.



Predictably, refund rates spiked.
Keith Millhouse, a transportation consultant in California, intended to donate once to Mr. Perdue, with the aim of keeping Republicans in control of the Senate. He wound up a recurring contributor and called the practice “repugnant” and “deceptive.”



“I’m busy like a lot of other people during this Covid era and I just wanted to get in, make a donation, get done and move on to what I needed to do next,” he said. “I thought I had done that. Then I find out that, you know, I’m getting these other charges.”



Image



Keith Millhouse wanted to make one donation to David Perdue, the Georgia Senate candidate, but unwittingly made an extra donation.Credit...Jessica Pons for The New York Times










He canceled the repeating charge when he saw the reminder email. But by then WinRed had already processed his second $100 “bonus” contribution. He figured it was not worth the hassle to protest. “Don’t try to sucker it out of me,” he said.
In the final 2020 reporting period, from Nov. 24 through the end of the year, Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler refunded $4.8 million to WinRed donors — more than triple the amount refunded by their Democratic rivals via ActBlue, even though the Democrats had raised far more money online. The refunds have stretched into 2021 and have been a source of frustration for the Loeffler campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Now WinRed is exporting the tools it pioneered during the Trump re-election bid across the Republican Party, presaging a new normal for G.O.P. campaigns.
Today, the websites of various Republican Party committees and top congressional Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, include prechecked yellow boxes for multiple or recurring donations.



And after Mr. Trump’s first public speech of his post-presidency at the end of February, his new political operation sent its first text message to supporters since he left the White House. “Did you miss me?” he asked.



The message directed supporters to a WinRed donation page with two prechecked yellow boxes. Mr. Trump raised $3 million that day, according to an adviser, with more to come from the recurring donations in the months ahead.
Rachel Shorey contributed reporting and Kitty Bennett contributed research.


Donald Trump and His Fund-Raising Operation

Trump Camp Uses Online Gimmick to Fuel Donations Into December
Oct. 31, 2020



Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future
Nov. 30, 2020



Trump’s Future: Tons of Cash and Plenty of Options for Spending It
Dec. 18, 2020



How Trump’s Billion-Dollar Campaign Lost Its Cash Advantage
Sept. 7, 2020






Shane Goldmacher is a national political reporter and was previously the chief political correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times, he worked at Politico, where he covered national Republican politics and the 2016 presidential campaign. @ShaneGoldmacher





DEAR LORD ABOVE HEAR ME LET JUSTICE BE SERVED and put this criminal away and take whatever funds he has destroy his properties and pay back the millions he stole FAWKING ROTTEN DIRTY MO FO WORST POLITCIAN EVER

[TheRifleman]

[TheRifleman]

one of the greatest men who ever lived!!

JUST A FEW NOTCHES BELOW JESUS

[TheRifleman]

more smears and lies ....Dimocrap/Chinese disinformation....

take ur meds and go to sleep u idiot

[TheRifleman]

meet the 47th POTUS!!!

[DwightShrute]

Lefties deflecting away from the Biden crime family as usual

[vitterd]

Trump is a grifter and a criminal. Can’t wait till the AG indicts this traitor to America.

[jackpot269]

one of the greatest men who ever lived!!

JUST A FEW NOTCHES BELOW JESUS

He has your kool aid iced down

[JIBBBY]

Fake news. Double Saloon this shit!

Trump the greatest President in recent history and America misses him right now!

Biden a brain dead loser as President and can't do anything right and nobody likes him.

[Bostongambler]

ALERT 🚨 🚨 AlERT 🚨🚨

This just in to the news line: Be on the lookout for an escaped patient from Bellevue. If located please contact authorities or return him to room #1605. Careful when approaching.

Goes by the name of oldbill

[stevenash]

Goes by the name of oldbill

And maybe, someday, he'll learn how to create a thread by using a singular link?

[Bostongambler]

And maybe, someday, he'll learn how to create a thread by using a singular link?

And one day we will get that chicken with Darren’s help.

[stevenash]

And one day we will get that chicken with Darren’s help.

[edawg]

How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations

Online donors were guided into weekly recurring contributions. Demands for refunds spiked. Complaints to banks and credit card companies soared. But the money helped keep Donald Trump’s struggling campaign afloat.




Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.
It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.
What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.



“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”
But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.



Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.
As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.
The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated withfraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

• Dig deeper into the moment.

Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week.


“Bandits!” said Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old Californian, who made a $990 online donation to Mr. Trump in early September via WinRed. It recurred seven more times — adding up to almost $8,000. “I’m retired. I can’t afford to pay all that damn money.”
The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.

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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.



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.



Image



Russell Blatt’s brother, Stacy, who was a supporter of Mr. Trump, died of cancer in February. Credit...Katie Currid for The New York Times










Marketers have long used ruses like prechecked boxes to steer American consumers into unwanted purchases, like magazine subscriptions. But consumer advocates said deploying the practice on voters in the heat of a presidential campaign — at such volume and with withdrawals every week — had much more serious ramifications.
“It’s unfair, it’s unethical and it’s inappropriate,” said Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
Harry Brignull, a user-experience designer in London who coined the term “dark patterns” for manipulative digital marketing practices, said the Trump team’s techniques were a classic of the “deceptive design” genre.
“It should be in textbooks of what you shouldn’t do,” he said.
Political strategists, digital operatives and campaign finance experts said they could not recall ever seeing refunds at such a scale. Mr. Trump, the R.N.C. and their shared accounts refunded far more money to online donors in the last election cycle than every federal Democratic candidate and committee in the country combined.




Over all, the Trump operation refunded 10.7 percent of the money it raised on WinRed in 2020; the Biden operation’s refund rate on ActBlue, the parallel Democratic online donation-processing platform, was 2.2 percent, federal records show.


How Refunds to Trump Donors Soared in 2020

Refunds are shown as the percentage of money received by each operation to date via WinRed and ActBlue.

Trump

By September, the Trump operation began to have online donations recur weekly by default.

10%

By June, the Trump operation and the R.N.C. had added a second pre-filled check box.

8

Around March 2020, the pre-filled check box first appeared on Mr. Trump’s online donation form.

6

4

Biden

2

Jan. 2020

Feb.

March

April

May






















The two prechecked yellow boxes would be a fixture for the rest of the campaign. And so would a much larger volume of refunds.
Until then, the Biden and Trump operations had nearly identical refund rates on WinRed and ActBlue in 2020: 2.18 percent for Mr. Trump and 2.17 percent for Mr. Biden.



But from the day after Mr. Trump’s birthday through the rest of the year, Mr. Biden’s refund rate remained nearly flat, at 2.24 percent, while Mr. Trump’s soared to 12.29 percent.



In early September — just after learning that it had been outraised by the Biden operation in August by more than $150 million — the Trump campaign became even more aggressive.
It changed the language in the first yellow box to withdraw recurring donations every week instead of every month. Suddenly, some contributors were unwittingly making as many as half a dozen donations in 30 days: the intended contribution, the “money bomb” and four more weekly withdrawals.

Image















“You don’t realize it until after everything is already in motion,” said Bruce Turner, 72, of Gilbert, Ariz., whose wife’s $1,000 donation in early October became $6,000 by Election Day. They were refunded $5,000 the week after the election, records show.
Around the same time, officials who fielded fraud claims at bank and credit card companies noticed a surge in complaints against the Trump campaign and WinRed.
“It started to go absolutely wild,” said one fraud investigator with Wells Fargo. “It just became a pattern,” said another at Capital One. A consumer representative for USAA, which primarily serves military families, recalled an older veteran who discovered repeated WinRed charges from donating to Mr. Trump only after calling to have his balance read to him by phone.



The unintended payments busted credit card limits. Some donors canceled their cards to avoid recurring payments. Others paid overdraft fees to their bank.



All the banking officials said they recalled only a negligible number of complaints against ActBlue, the Democratic donation platform, although there are online review sites that feature heated complaints about unwanted charges and customer service.
The Trump operation was not done modifying the yellow boxes. Soon, the fact that donations would be withdrawn weekly was taken out of boldface type, according to archived versions of the president’s website, and moved beneath other bold text.

Image















As the campaign’s financial problems became increasingly acute, the yellow boxes became dizzyingly more complex.
By October there were sometimes nine lines of boldface text — with ALL-CAPS words sprinkled in — before the disclosure that there would be weekly withdrawals. As many as eight more lines of boldface text came before the second additional donation disclaimer.

Image













Even political professionals fell prey to the boxes.
Jeff Kropf, the executive director of the Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation, a conservative group, said he had been “very careful” to uncheck recurring boxes — yet he missed the “money bomb” and got a second charge anyway.




“Until WinRed fixes their sneaky way of adding additional contributions to ************ like they did to me, I won’t use them again,” he said.
Mr. Brignull, the user-experience designer who also serves as an expert witness in legal cases involving misleading advertising, noted that a Consumer Rights Directive in Europe prohibits companies from deploying a defaulted opt-in tactic for recurring payments.
“It is very easy for the eye to skip over,” he said. “The only really meaningful information in that box is buried.”



Image



Banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints last fall from the president’s supporters about donations they had not intended to make.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times










The ‘Gary and Gerrit’ operation

By last summer, the Biden campaign had begun outraising Mr. Trump’s team, and the president was hopping mad. For months, years even, his advisers had been telling him how he had built a one-of-a-kind financial juggernaut. So why, Mr. Trump demanded to know, was he off the television airwaves just months before the election in critical battleground states like Michigan?
“Where did all the money go?” he would lash out, according to two senior advisers.
Inside the Trump re-election headquarters in Northern Virginia, the pressure was building to wring ever more money out of his supporters.



Perhaps nowhere was that pressure more acute than on Mr. Trump’s expansive and lucrative digital operation. That was the unquestioned domain of Gary Coby, a 30-something strategist whose title — digital director — and microscopic public profile belied his immense influence on the Trump operation, especially online.



A veteran of the R.N.C. and the 2016 race, Mr. Coby had the confidence, trust and respect of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who unofficially oversaw the 2020 campaign, according to people familiar with the campaign’s operations. Mr. Kushner and the rest of the campaign leadership gave Mr. Coby, whose talents are recognized across the Republican digital industry, wide latitude to raise money however he saw fit.
That meant almost endless optimization and experimentation, sometimes pushing the traditional boundaries. The Trump team repeatedly used phantom donation matches and faux deadlines to loosen donor wallets (“1000% offer: ACTIVATED…For the NEXT HOUR”). Eventually it ratcheted up the volume of emails it sent until it was barraging supporters with an average of 15 per day for all of October and November 2020.
Mr. Coby,who declined an interview request for this article,outlined his philosophical approach when offering advice to other ambitious young strategists after he was named to the American Association of Political Consultants’ “40 under 40” list in 2017: “Asking for forgiveness is easier than permission.”
The Trump Investigations

---

Card 1 of 8Numerous inquiries. Since Donald J. Trump left office, the former president has been facing civil and criminal investigations across the country into his business dealings and political activities. Here is a look at the notable inquiries:



Jan. 6 inquiries. A House select committee and federal prosecutors are investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and examining the possible culpability of a broad range of figures — including Mr. Trump and his allies — involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a series of public hearings, the committee appears to be laying out evidence that could allow prosecutors to indict Mr. Trump.



White House documents investigation. The Justice Department has begun a grand jury investigation into the handling of classified materials that ended up at Mr. Trump’s Florida home. The investigation is focused on the discovery by the National Archives that Mr. Trump had taken 15 boxes of documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago when he left office.



Manhattan criminal case. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, intentionally submitted false property values to potential lenders. But new signs have emerged that the inquiry may be losing steam.



New York State civil inquiry. The New York attorney general’s office has been assisting with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation while conducting its own civil inquiry into some of the same conduct. The civil inquiry is focused on whether Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets were part of a pattern of fraud or were simply Trumpian showmanship.



Georgia criminal inquiry. Mr. Trump himself is under scrutiny in Georgia, where the district attorney of Fulton County has been investigating whether he and others criminally interfered with the 2020 election results in the state. Several allies of the former president, including Rudy Giuliani, Lindsey Graham and John Eastman, have been subpoenaed.



Westchester County criminal investigation. The district attorney’s office in Westchester County, N.Y., appears to be focused at least in part on whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of a golf course, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, to reduce its taxes.



Trump’s social media merger. A federal grand jury in Manhattan has issued subpoenas regarding the merger of Mr. Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The merger has also been under investigation by financial regulators for months.









Mr. Coby’s partner in fund-raising was Mr. Lansing, the president of WinRed, which had been created in 2019 as a centralized platform for G.O.P. digital contributions after prominent Republicans feared they were falling irreparably behind Democrats and ActBlue.
The Trump and WinRed operations had been closely aligned since the platform’s inception — Mr. Trump reportedly helped come up with the firm’s name — and the president’s re-election operation amounted to a majority of all of WinRed’s business last cycle, when it processed more than $2 billion.
Inside the Trump orbit, “Gary and Gerrit” became something of a shorthand term for Mr. Coby and Mr. Lansing, according to multiple senior Trump campaign and White House officials.



The two strategists were already well acquainted: They had worked together at the R.N.C. in 2016, when Mr. Lansing oversaw its digital operations and Mr. Coby was the director of advertising. And they were business partners in Opn Sesame, a text messaging platform, which Mr. Lansing co-founded and served as chief operating officer for; WinRed said he stepped away from its day-to-day operations in early 2019.



Top Trump officials said they did not know specifically who had conceived of using the weekly recurring prechecked boxes — or who had designed them in the increasingly complex blizzard of text. But they said virtually all online fund-raising decisions were a “Gary and Gerrit” production.
“The campaigns determine their own fund-raising strategies and make their own decisions on how to use these tools,” Mr. Lansing said in WinRed’s statement.
Unlike ActBlue, which is a nonprofit, WinRed is a for-profit company. It makes its money by taking 30 cents of every donation, plus 3.8 percent of the amount given. WinRed was paid more than $118 million from federal committees the last election cycle; even after paying credit card fees and expenses like payroll and rent, the profits are believed to be significant.
WinRed even made money off donations that were refunded by keeping the fees it charged on each transaction, a practice it said was standard in the industry, citing PayPal; ActBlue said it does not keep fees for refunded donations. WinRed’s cut of the Trump operation’s refunds would amount to roughly $5 million before expenses. (Archived versions of WinRed’s website show it added a disclaimer saying it would keep its fees around when refunds surged.)
There is another reason Mr. Trump’s refund rates were so high: His campaign accepted millions of dollars above the legal cap, a problem exacerbated by recurring donations. A pianist in New York, for instance, contributed more than 100 times in the months leading up to Election Day, going far past the legal limit of $2,800. She was refunded $87,716.50 — three weeks after Election Day.
While every large-scale campaign winds up accepting and returning some donations above the legal limit, including Mr. Biden’s, the Trump situation stands out. Records show that Mr. Biden’s campaign committee issued roughly $47,000 in refunds larger than $5,000 after Election Day; Mr. Trump’s campaign issued more than $7 million.



Trump officials attributed the excessive donations to enthusiastic supporters and said the surge in postelection complaints was a result of losing the election, not of the recurring donation tactics.



The use of prechecked boxes is not unprecedented in politics, and WinRed said it was simply adopting tactics that ActBlue put in place years ago.ActBlue said in a statement that it had begun to phase out prechecked recurring boxes “unless groups were explicitly asking for recurring contributions.” Some prominent Democratic groups, including both congressional campaign committees, continue to precheck recurring boxes regardless of that guidance. Still, Democratic refund rates were only a small fraction of the Trump campaign’s last year.
Republicans widely hailed WinRed as one of the standout successes of the 2020 cycle, and in a memo last October the company declared itself the “trusted, recognizable platform” for Republican giving. “Scam PACs, shady operators and outright fraud is unfortunately a common occurrence in the online political donation world — particularly on the right,” the memo stated. “WinRed helps civilize the Wild West of the G.O.P. donation ecosystem.”
But for some Trump supporters like Ron Wilson, WinRed is a scam artist. Mr. Wilson, an 87-year-old retiree in Illinois, made a series of small contributions last fall that he thought would add up to about $200; by December, federal records show, WinRed and Mr. Trump’s committees had withdrawn more than 70 separate donations from Mr. Wilson worth roughly $2,300.
“Predatory!” Mr. Wilson said of WinRed. Like multiple other donors interviewed, though, he held Mr. Trump himself blameless, telling The Times, “I’m 100 percent loyal to Donald Trump.”
Trump was just the beginning

All told, the Trump and party operation raised $1.2 billion on WinRed, and refunded roughly 10 percent of it.
Whatever blowback it received, WinRed was not deterred. Soon after the November election ended, the two Republican Senate incumbents in Georgia, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, deployed prechecked weekly recurring boxes in advance of their January runoffs.



Predictably, refund rates spiked.
Keith Millhouse, a transportation consultant in California, intended to donate once to Mr. Perdue, with the aim of keeping Republicans in control of the Senate. He wound up a recurring contributor and called the practice “repugnant” and “deceptive.”



“I’m busy like a lot of other people during this Covid era and I just wanted to get in, make a donation, get done and move on to what I needed to do next,” he said. “I thought I had done that. Then I find out that, you know, I’m getting these other charges.”



Image



Keith Millhouse wanted to make one donation to David Perdue, the Georgia Senate candidate, but unwittingly made an extra donation.Credit...Jessica Pons for The New York Times










He canceled the repeating charge when he saw the reminder email. But by then WinRed had already processed his second $100 “bonus” contribution. He figured it was not worth the hassle to protest. “Don’t try to sucker it out of me,” he said.
In the final 2020 reporting period, from Nov. 24 through the end of the year, Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler refunded $4.8 million to WinRed donors — more than triple the amount refunded by their Democratic rivals via ActBlue, even though the Democrats had raised far more money online. The refunds have stretched into 2021 and have been a source of frustration for the Loeffler campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Now WinRed is exporting the tools it pioneered during the Trump re-election bid across the Republican Party, presaging a new normal for G.O.P. campaigns.
Today, the websites of various Republican Party committees and top congressional Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, include prechecked yellow boxes for multiple or recurring donations.



And after Mr. Trump’s first public speech of his post-presidency at the end of February, his new political operation sent its first text message to supporters since he left the White House. “Did you miss me?” he asked.



The message directed supporters to a WinRed donation page with two prechecked yellow boxes. Mr. Trump raised $3 million that day, according to an adviser, with more to come from the recurring donations in the months ahead.
Rachel Shorey contributed reporting and Kitty Bennett contributed research.


Donald Trump and His Fund-Raising Operation

Trump Camp Uses Online Gimmick to Fuel Donations Into December
Oct. 31, 2020



Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future
Nov. 30, 2020



Trump’s Future: Tons of Cash and Plenty of Options for Spending It
Dec. 18, 2020



How Trump’s Billion-Dollar Campaign Lost Its Cash Advantage
Sept. 7, 2020






Shane Goldmacher is a national political reporter and was previously the chief political correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times, he worked at Politico, where he covered national Republican politics and the 2016 presidential campaign. @ShaneGoldmacher





DEAR LORD ABOVE HEAR ME LET JUSTICE BE SERVED and put this criminal away and take whatever funds he has destroy his properties and pay back the millions he stole FAWKING ROTTEN DIRTY MO FO WORST POLITCIAN EVER

Fake news

[OldBill]

omfg you all are a bunch of idiots he stole money from elderly people and one was dyieing of cncer his brother had to help him pay bills and he died in feburay sure right you say disnformation and fake news but it's happeneing again his dopes and i guess you are cntributing money to help him run and his making fawwwking fools out of all of you biggest idiots support trump


try reading the 14th amendment jerk offs HE cannot run for pres ever again and many people agree he is guilty of many criminal acts owes 1000's of people over a trillion $ every sane person in nyc hates him trump tower i think has guards outside to ward off people wantng to destroy his properties

gawd i cant wait till you all get hit in face with the shit when it hits the fan because you all are too stupid to see the truth

[stevenash]

^
Well done, you only used 1/4 of a page for a post.
You're getting there.

[JIBBBY]

Another OldBill Trump rant thread. TDS!!!

Trump is an after thought right now and not even President. Hasn't even announced he'll run in 2024.

What is wrong with these libtards still obsessed with Donald Trump? I don't get it? Should be talking about Biden and his failed polices.

[stevenash]

Another OldBill Trump rant thread. TDS!!!

Trump is an after thought right now and not even President. Hasn't even announced he'll run in 2024.

What is wrong with these libtards still obsessed with Donald Trump? I don't get it? Should be talking about Biden and his failed polices.

Two words that trigger liberals.
Donald Trump.

Trump could fart and Pelosi would demand a congressional investigation.

[OldBill]

Another OldBill Trump rant thread. TDS!!!

Trump is an after thought right now and not even President. Hasn't even announced he'll run in 2024.

What is wrong with these libtards still obsessed with Donald Trump? I don't get it? Should be talking about Biden and his failed polices.

TRUMP is still taking money today hinting that HE will run for president but not declaring that he will run TRUMP caused all this shit to occur and as every new presdent has to do is take blame for what the formore presdent did

yup ok vote republican in 2024 and i'll be LMAO with tears in my eyes 6 months later in here when you strat craying wtf did i do why did a vote for this moron etc... etc...

[OldBill]

[OldBill]

[OldBill]

[OldBill]

[OldBill]

17 times Donald Trump said one thing and then denied it
Donald Trump once claimed to have "the world’s greatest memory," but he seems to suffer bouts of amnesia when it comes to his own statements.
"I never said ____" followed by a charge of media dishonesty is a favorite refrain of the presumptive Republican nominee’s, and it’s something that he’s been doing for years.
For example, in 2014, as he was fighting to prevent wind turbines from being installed near his golf course in Scotland and ruining his views, Trump told a Twitter user he "never said" that "wind farms are a disaster for Scotland." Yet he’s quoted in the Irish Times saying that verbatim.
And just before he jumped into the presidential race, Trump reignited his spat with Jon Stewart, calling the comedian "a wiseguy with no talent" and denying that he ever attacked Stewart for not using his real last name, Leibowitz. But Trump did go after Stewart’s use of a stage name in a series of tweets that many took to be anti-Semitic.
Trump’s forgetfulness during the 2016 cycle has been noted by many, like New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum:


That sounded like a good idea to us. Here are 17 times Trump said something and then denied saying it in chronological order.
July 19, 2015: Saying John McCain is not a war hero
One of the first controversies of his 2016 campaign erupted when the brash billionaire said McCain, a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, isn’t a war hero. Facing intense backlash, Trump didn’t exactly deny his comment, but insisted it was taken out of context.
"Four times, I said he is a hero," he said on July 19 on ABC. "But you know … people choose little selective pieces."
We rated his claim Mostly False. Looking at the transcript, Trump literally said McCain is a hero five times, but never without caveats. Once, he added "perhaps, I believe" before conceding the point. Twice, he was interrupted. And the last two times, Trump said, "He is a war hero because he was captured." In other words, Trump also cherry-picked his interview and misquoted himself.
Aug. 9, 2015: Calling women ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’
Trump’s spat with Fox News host Megyn Kelly began when Kelly brought up various statements Trump made about women at the first GOP presidential debate in August 2015.
"You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’ " Kelly said.
Trump interrupted to quip, "only Rosie O’Donnell." A few days later, Trump was more forceful and serious in his denial of Kelly’s premise.
"Well, some of the things that she said, I didn't say, okay?" Trump said on Meet the Press.
That’s False. He’s used those exact words to describe O’Donnell, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, a lawyer who had to pump breast milk and Bette Midler. He also said "it must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees" to female contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice, as Kelly noted.
Oct. 28, 2015: ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator’
At a GOP debate in Colorado, CNBC moderator Becky Quick noted Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Facebook founder "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator, because he was in favor of the H-1B ****."
"I never said that. I never said that," Trump responded.
Pants on Fire! These words appear verbatim on Trump’s campaign website: "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities."
Nov. 11, 2015: Implying China was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
When asked about the pending trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim nations at a Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Trump took to bashing China.
"The TPP is horrible deal," Trump said. "It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone." (For the record, Trump got a Pants on Fire for this claim.)
"You know, we might want to point out that China’s not part of this deal," quipped former rival Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. But a day later, Trump denied suggesting China was a signatory.
While Trump didn’t literally say China was a TPP partner, his denial doesn’t add up. After all, he didn’t name a single country involved in the deal, and he didn’t say "at a later date," as he claimed in the tweet. Even more perplexing is the notion that TPP partners like Japan and Vietnam would "design" a deal to benefit their regional rival.
Jan. 28, 2016: Asking for Megyn Kelly’s removal from a debate
Trump’s war with Kelly led to him boycotting the Fox News/Google debate in Iowa. An hour before the other candidates took the stage, Trump insisted on CNN his absence was due to a mocking Fox News press release and he "never once asked that (Kelly) be removed."
We rated that claim False. We found several instances of Trump and his campaign telling reporters and tweeting about skipping the debate because of Kelly. He went so far as to say Kelly "should not be allowed" to moderate, that she "should recuse herself," and she "shouldn’t be in the debate."
Feb. 11, 2016: Using a curse word to describe Ted Cruz
Trump denied using "a very bad word" — a synonym for cat — at a rally in Manchester, N.H., and demanded an apology from Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin for suggesting he had done so.
But Halperin has no reason to be sorry. There’s video evidence. An audience member called Trump rival Ted Cruz a slur for a woman. Trump repeated the p---- word after telling fans it was a "terrible" word in mock outrage.
Feb. 28, 2016: "I don’t know anything about David Duke"
After being rebuked left and right for declining to reject former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support, Trump claimed he didn’t know anything about Duke at all.
Pants on Fire! Trump knew enough about Duke to denounce him two days earlier and once in August 2015. In 2000, he criticized Duke’s racism in the New York Times. And in 1991, he told Larry King he hated what votes for Duke, who was running for Louisiana Governor, represented.
March 15, 2016: Paying the legal fees of fans who punch protesters
Facing backlash for encouraging violence against protestors at his rallies, Trump denied that he once promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who roughed up protesters.
"I don’t condone violence," Trump said on ABC. "I never said I was going to pay for fees."
But this is what he told supporters in Iowa a month earlier: "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise."
March 16, 2016: Punching protestors in general
The next day, Trump denied that he had encouraged violence at all.
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly scolded Trump for it on his show: "You have said some very questionable things like, ‘maybe we punch them in face’ or something like that."
"I didn’t say that, Bill," Trump responded, before sort of admitting it. "All I did was make the statement, ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it.’"
While O’Reilly’s quote wasn’t exact, Trump’s statements on the matter weren’t exactly dispassionate.
"We’re not allowed to punch back any more. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks," Trump said at his February Las Vegas rally. "The guards are being very gentle with him. ... I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you."
March 30, 2016: Nuking ISIS
Trump denied being open to using nuclear weapons against ISIS at a town hall in Wisconsin.
"I didn’t say, ‘don’t take it (off the table).’ I said I would be very, very slow and hesitant to pull the trigger," he told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Trump is playing a word game here. A few days earlier, he told Bloomberg he'd "never rule anything out" in order to preserve an element of unpredictability.
May 4, 2016: Suggesting that Cruz’s ‘father was with Lee Harvey Oswald’
Trump clinched the Republican nomination in early May, but not before linking Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Fox and Friends. After being widely panned for his Pants on Fire claim, Trump tried to downplay the context of his remarks.
"All I was doing was referring to a picture that was reported and in a magazine," Trump told ABC the morning after he levied the charge and won the primary.
Actually, Trump launched the attack without referring to the photo, which was later mentioned by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. Trump did say "it was reported" before interrupting himself. He then interrupted Kilmeade when the host attempted to provide a source for the claim.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. I mean they don’t even talk about that — that was reported — and nobody ever talks about it," Trump said (around the 5:10 mark).
"Right, there’s a picture out there that reportedly shows Rafael Cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald," Kilmeade said. "I don’t know if that’s been verified —"
"I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting? It’s horrible," Trump said before Kilmeade pivoted to a question about polling.
May 17, 2016: Regretting going after Cruz’s wife
During his patch-up interview with Kelly, Trump denied calling his retweet of an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz "a mistake."
"I am not walking it back," he told Kelly. "But I actually didn’t say it that way. I said, I could have done without it."
But he did say it that way, telling the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, "Yeah, it was a mistake. If I had to do again, I wouldn’t have sent it."
May 31, 2016: Referring to some Republicans as ‘losers’
Trump’s usage of the word "loser" is downright idiosyncratic, yet he denied using his signature insult against his fellow party members, except one in particular.
"Why do you refer to some Republicans and conservatives as losers?" a reporter asked at a May press conference (around the 34:40 mark).
"No, no, I didn’t say that. I said (Weekly Standard editor) Bill Kristol is a loser," Trump replied, then took it back. "I didn’t say everybody. Many, but I didn’t say everybody."
Kristol is by no means the only conservative "loser," according to the presumptive GOP nominee. Here are a few mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of Trump-anointed losers: RedState’s Erick Erickson, columnist George Will, strategist Roger Stone, Bush advisor Karl Rove, blogger Michelle Malkin, pollster Frank Luntz, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, columnist Charles Krauthammer, and John McCain.
And here are a few more not on the Post’s list: Rubio, Jeb Bush, Cruz, Scott Walker, primary rivals who pledged to support the nominee but haven’t, Megyn Kelly, Wall Street Journal’s Mary Kissel, consultant Cheri Jacobus, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, commentator S.E. Cupp, and the Club for Growth.
(Trump’s repertoire of insults is also quite expansive. Here are some more names he’s called conservatives.)
June 2, 2016: Nuclear weapons in Japan
Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of telling "such lies about his foreign policy."
"They said I want Japan to nuke, that I want Japan to get nuclear weapons," Trump said at a rally in Sacramento." Give me a break."
Trump’s denial is Mostly False. While he didn’t literally say he wants Japan to obtain nuclear power, he’s come very close to it several times:
"At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea," he said at a CNN town hall in March.
"Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea," he said on Fox News Sunday a month later. "Maybe they would be better off — including with nukes, yes, including with nukes
June 12, 2016: Mocking a disabled reporter
Responding to an attack ad, Trump charged Clinton with lying about him mocking a disabled reporter.


Donald Trump once claimed to have "the world’s greatest memory," but he seems to suffer bouts of amnesia when it comes to his own statements.
"I never said ____" followed by a charge of media dishonesty is a favorite refrain of the presumptive Republican nominee’s, and it’s something that he’s been doing for years.
For example, in 2014, as he was fighting to prevent wind turbines from being installed near his golf course in Scotland and ruining his views, Trump told a Twitter user he "never said" that "wind farms are a disaster for Scotland." Yet he’s quoted in the Irish Times saying that verbatim.
And just before he jumped into the presidential race, Trump reignited his spat with Jon Stewart, calling the comedian "a wiseguy with no talent" and denying that he ever attacked Stewart for not using his real last name, Leibowitz. But Trump did go after Stewart’s use of a stage name in a series of tweets that many took to be anti-Semitic.
Trump’s forgetfulness during the 2016 cycle has been noted by many, like New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum:
That sounded like a good idea to us. Here are 17 times Trump said something and then denied saying it in chronological order.
July 19, 2015: Saying John McCain is not a war hero
One of the first controversies of his 2016 campaign erupted when the brash billionaire said McCain, a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, isn’t a war hero. Facing intense backlash, Trump didn’t exactly deny his comment, but insisted it was taken out of context.
"Four times, I said he is a hero," he said on July 19 on ABC. "But you know … people choose little selective pieces."
We rated his claim Mostly False. Looking at the transcript, Trump literally said McCain is a hero five times, but never without caveats. Once, he added "perhaps, I believe" before conceding the point. Twice, he was interrupted. And the last two times, Trump said, "He is a war hero because he was captured." In other words, Trump also cherry-picked his interview and misquoted himself.
Aug. 9, 2015: Calling women ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’
Trump’s spat with Fox News host Megyn Kelly began when Kelly brought up various statements Trump made about women at the first GOP presidential debate in August 2015.
"You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’ " Kelly said.
Trump interrupted to quip, "only Rosie O’Donnell." A few days later, Trump was more forceful and serious in his denial of Kelly’s premise.
"Well, some of the things that she said, I didn't say, okay?" Trump said on Meet the Press.
That’s False. He’s used those exact words to describe O’Donnell, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, a lawyer who had to pump breast milk and Bette Midler. He also said "it must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees" to female contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice, as Kelly noted.
Oct. 28, 2015: ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator’
At a GOP debate in Colorado, CNBC moderator Becky Quick noted Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Facebook founder "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator, because he was in favor of the H-1B ****."
"I never said that. I never said that," Trump responded.
Pants on Fire! These words appear verbatim on Trump’s campaign website: "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities."
Nov. 11, 2015: Implying China was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
When asked about the pending trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim nations at a Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Trump took to bashing China.
"The TPP is horrible deal," Trump said. "It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone." (For the record, Trump got a Pants on Fire for this claim.)
"You know, we might want to point out that China’s not part of this deal," quipped former rival Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. But a day later, Trump denied suggesting China was a signatory.
While Trump didn’t literally say China was a TPP partner, his denial doesn’t add up. After all, he didn’t name a single country involved in the deal, and he didn’t say "at a later date," as he claimed in the tweet. Even more perplexing is the notion that TPP partners like Japan and Vietnam would "design" a deal to benefit their regional rival.
Jan. 28, 2016: Asking for Megyn Kelly’s removal from a debate
Trump’s war with Kelly led to him boycotting the Fox News/Google debate in Iowa. An hour before the other candidates took the stage, Trump insisted on CNN his absence was due to a mocking Fox News press release and he "never once asked that (Kelly) be removed."
We rated that claim False. We found several instances of Trump and his campaign telling reporters and tweeting about skipping the debate because of Kelly. He went so far as to say Kelly "should not be allowed" to moderate, that she "should recuse herself," and she "shouldn’t be in the debate."
Feb. 11, 2016: Using a curse word to describe Ted Cruz
Trump denied using "a very bad word" — a synonym for cat — at a rally in Manchester, N.H., and demanded an apology from Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin for suggesting he had done so.
But Halperin has no reason to be sorry. There’s video evidence. An audience member called Trump rival Ted Cruz a slur for a woman. Trump repeated the p---- word after telling fans it was a "terrible" word in mock outrage.
Feb. 28, 2016: "I don’t know anything about David Duke"
After being rebuked left and right for declining to reject former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support, Trump claimed he didn’t know anything about Duke at all.
Pants on Fire! Trump knew enough about Duke to denounce him two days earlier and once in August 2015. In 2000, he criticized Duke’s racism in the New York Times. And in 1991, he told Larry King he hated what votes for Duke, who was running for Louisiana Governor, represented.
March 15, 2016: Paying the legal fees of fans who punch protesters
Facing backlash for encouraging violence against protestors at his rallies, Trump denied that he once promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who roughed up protesters.
"I don’t condone violence," Trump said on ABC. "I never said I was going to pay for fees."
But this is what he told supporters in Iowa a month earlier: "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise."
March 16, 2016: Punching protestors in general
The next day, Trump denied that he had encouraged violence at all.
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly scolded Trump for it on his show: "You have said some very questionable things like, ‘maybe we punch them in face’ or something like that."
"I didn’t say that, Bill," Trump responded, before sort of admitting it. "All I did was make the statement, ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it.’"
While O’Reilly’s quote wasn’t exact, Trump’s statements on the matter weren’t exactly dispassionate.
"We’re not allowed to punch back any more. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks," Trump said at his February Las Vegas rally. "The guards are being very gentle with him. ... I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you."
March 30, 2016: Nuking ISIS
Trump denied being open to using nuclear weapons against ISIS at a town hall in Wisconsin.
"I didn’t say, ‘don’t take it (off the table).’ I said I would be very, very slow and hesitant to pull the trigger," he told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Trump is playing a word game here. A few days earlier, he told Bloomberg he'd "never rule anything out" in order to preserve an element of unpredictability.
May 4, 2016: Suggesting that Cruz’s ‘father was with Lee Harvey Oswald’

Trump clinched the Republican nomination in early May, but not before linking Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Fox and Friends. After being widely panned for his Pants on Fire claim, Trump tried to downplay the context of his remarks.
"All I was doing was referring to a picture that was reported and in a magazine," Trump told ABC the morning after he levied the charge and won the primary.
Actually, Trump launched the attack without referring to the photo, which was later mentioned by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. Trump did say "it was reported" before interrupting himself. He then interrupted Kilmeade when the host attempted to provide a source for the claim.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. I mean they don’t even talk about that — that was reported — and nobody ever talks about it," Trump said (around the 5:10 mark).
"Right, there’s a picture out there that reportedly shows Rafael Cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald," Kilmeade said. "I don’t know if that’s been verified —"
"I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting? It’s horrible," Trump said before Kilmeade pivoted to a question about polling.
May 17, 2016: Regretting going after Cruz’s wife
During his patch-up interview with Kelly, Trump denied calling his retweet of an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz "a mistake."
"I am not walking it back," he told Kelly. "But I actually didn’t say it that way. I said, I could have done without it."
But he did say it that way, telling the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, "Yeah, it was a mistake. If I had to do again, I wouldn’t have sent it."
May 31, 2016: Referring to some Republicans as ‘losers’
Trump’s usage of the word "loser" is downright idiosyncratic, yet he denied using his signature insult against his fellow party members, except one in particular.
"Why do you refer to some Republicans and conservatives as losers?" a reporter asked at a May press conference (around the 34:40 mark).
"No, no, I didn’t say that. I said (Weekly Standard editor) Bill Kristol is a loser," Trump replied, then took it back. "I didn’t say everybody. Many, but I didn’t say everybody."
Kristol is by no means the only conservative "loser," according to the presumptive GOP nominee. Here are a few mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of Trump-anointed losers: RedState’s Erick Erickson, columnist George Will, strategist Roger Stone, Bush advisor Karl Rove, blogger Michelle Malkin, pollster Frank Luntz, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, columnist Charles Krauthammer, and John McCain.
And here are a few more not on the Post’s list: Rubio, Jeb Bush, Cruz, Scott Walker, primary rivals who pledged to support the nominee but haven’t, Megyn Kelly, Wall Street Journal’s Mary Kissel, consultant Cheri Jacobus, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, commentator S.E. Cupp, and the Club for Growth.
(Trump’s repertoire of insults is also quite expansive. Here are some more names he’s called conservatives.)
June 2, 2016: Nuclear weapons in Japan
Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of telling "such lies about his foreign policy."
"They said I want Japan to nuke, that I want Japan to get nuclear weapons," Trump said at a rally in Sacramento." Give me a break."
Trump’s denial is Mostly False. While he didn’t literally say he wants Japan to obtain nuclear power, he’s come very close to it several times:
"At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea," he said at a CNN town hall in March.
"Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea," he said on Fox News Sunday a month later. "Maybe they would be better off — including with nukes, yes, including with nukes
June 12, 2016: Mocking a disabled reporter
Responding to an attack ad, Trump charged Clinton with lying about him mocking a disabled reporter.
But he did. There’s video evidence of him mimicking the reporter’s angled hands while flailing his arms and shouting in a strange voice.
June 20, 2016: On guns preventing the Orlando shooting
As Democrats mounted efforts to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando shooting, Trump brought up the proverbial "good guy with a gun" argument, which goes that mass casualties could have been avoided if one civilian in the club were armed.
Under scrutiny for his comment, Trump insisted he meant armed security, not clubgoers.


Obviously, he was not. In an interview on CNN, Trump said armed "people" in general, possibly exercising concealed carry, could have prevented the tragedy, and he ignored a reporter when she pointed out that there was an armed security guard in the club. Here’s the exchange:
Trump: "If you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy you had. If people in that room …"
Reporter: "But there was …"
Trump: "...had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction …"
Reporter: "But Mr. Trump, there was an armed security guard."
Trump: " ...right at him, right at his head, you wouldn't have had the same tragedy that you ended up having. ...But if you had guns in that room, even if you had a number of people having them strapped to their ankle or strapped to their waists, where bullets could have flown in the other direction, you wouldn’t have had the same kind of tragedy."
June 23, 2016: On having one of the world’s best memories
To cap it all, Trump ironically can’t remember bragging about his memory as revealed in his deposition for a Trump University lawsuit. Here’s what he said, according to transcript released in late June:
"Q. You’ve stated though, that you have one of the best memories in the world?
A. I don’t know. Did I use that expression?
Q. Yes.
A. Where? Could I see it?
Q. I can play the video of you reporting it.
A. Did I say I have a great memory or one of the best in the world.
Q. "One of the best in the world" is what the reporter quoted you as saying
A. I don’t remember saying that. As good as my memory is, I don’t remember that, but I have a good memory."
Two weeks before the Dec. 10 deposition, Trump was doubling down his Pants on Fire claim about "thousands and thousands of people were cheering" on 9/11.
"I have the world's greatest memory," he told NBC. "It's one thing everyone agrees on."

[OldBill]

i know one thing for sure in 2024 i will do my full research and vote for who i think will be the best president.

so many people do not know certain races always vote democrat always 100%

YOU have a right to VOTE and freedoms not given to others in any other country

Think about this a moment imagine not being able to watch what you want on TV forced to watch what the dictaor of that country wants.

NOT allowed to be educated forced to reaiinm stupid and poor

NOT allowed to travel anywhere

IF convicted in court of the smallest crime your KILLED

and NO lawyers to help you state your case

we can argue in this forum day and night as long as we DO NOT make threats against any member or any politician etc... in other words follow the LAW and rules.

NO the Justice system isn't perfect but at least we have it

WE are all humans even the pope even the quuen of england and every other leader in this world we make mistakes

but we admit it and will make adjustments to fix what we broke or harmed


D T will not admit any thing because he cannot accept losing

I always accept my mistakes i say yes you were right i was wrong i'm sorry forgive for being HUMAN.

ONE guy on TIK TOK said it perfectly NO mater what race you are no mater if your white black yellow etcc.. remember we all bleed RED and are created equally under GOD so be with me or not

EXAMPLE: LIKE just because i live in a ghetto and im black and forced to live here dosent make you white rich murders arcist pedophiles any better than me!

unfortunately thats is what it is ............. uneducataed always looking for easy way out DRUGS etc... wind up DEAD before turning 30

IN Other words copy the ones you see who have success they went to school MOM n Dad broke thier backs and beat you when you wee disobeying them or others or taught you right from wrong

NO more safe cities and towns today everyone is at risk of getting hot for stupid things

like close to philly out in delware county a thug shot n killed a man because his wife was driving to slow

I never curse back at others on highways or flip the bird i just brake and slow down

avoiding negative people is a way to stay alive

[JIBBBY]

No one is readying your Trump post hate rants. Hey but carry on old school if it make you happy inside.

[OldBill]

No one is readying your Trump post hate rants. Hey but carry on old school if it make you happy inside.

im doing it because you n others are one way complaing about BIDEN intsead of looking at both sides realizing the GOP praty is trying to make the DEMOCRATS look as bad as possible so they win in november and in 2024

[OldBill]

[Natty68]

Fake news. Double Saloon this shit!

Trump the greatest President in recent history and America misses him right now!

Biden a brain dead loser as President and can't do anything right and nobody likes him.

^^^^THIS….X1000%

Donald Trump was an excellent president

Wish some of these libtards would do the normal regular people a favor and off themselves

[stevenash]

Hey Bill
Knock it off with the walls of text for the love of God.

[klemopixx]

Some of the MAGA's seem triggered.

[stevenash]

Some of the MAGA's seem triggered.

I'm neither MAGA nor Biden but seems to me each side triggers the other.
Biden taught Obama well.

No, I'm not DeSantis either, if you ask me, and you didn't, but both sides should blow up each other and start all over again.
Dems can keep Lamont, I'm happy with him at least.

[Bostongambler]

17 times Donald Trump said one thing and then denied it
Donald Trump once claimed to have "the world’s greatest memory," but he seems to suffer bouts of amnesia when it comes to his own statements.
"I never said ____" followed by a charge of media dishonesty is a favorite refrain of the presumptive Republican nominee’s, and it’s something that he’s been doing for years.
For example, in 2014, as he was fighting to prevent wind turbines from being installed near his golf course in Scotland and ruining his views, Trump told a Twitter user he "never said" that "wind farms are a disaster for Scotland." Yet he’s quoted in the Irish Times saying that verbatim.
And just before he jumped into the presidential race, Trump reignited his spat with Jon Stewart, calling the comedian "a wiseguy with no talent" and denying that he ever attacked Stewart for not using his real last name, Leibowitz. But Trump did go after Stewart’s use of a stage name in a series of tweets that many took to be anti-Semitic.
Trump’s forgetfulness during the 2016 cycle has been noted by many, like New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum:


That sounded like a good idea to us. Here are 17 times Trump said something and then denied saying it in chronological order.
July 19, 2015: Saying John McCain is not a war hero
One of the first controversies of his 2016 campaign erupted when the brash billionaire said McCain, a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, isn’t a war hero. Facing intense backlash, Trump didn’t exactly deny his comment, but insisted it was taken out of context.
"Four times, I said he is a hero," he said on July 19 on ABC. "But you know … people choose little selective pieces."
We rated his claim Mostly False. Looking at the transcript, Trump literally said McCain is a hero five times, but never without caveats. Once, he added "perhaps, I believe" before conceding the point. Twice, he was interrupted. And the last two times, Trump said, "He is a war hero because he was captured." In other words, Trump also cherry-picked his interview and misquoted himself.
Aug. 9, 2015: Calling women ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’
Trump’s spat with Fox News host Megyn Kelly began when Kelly brought up various statements Trump made about women at the first GOP presidential debate in August 2015.
"You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’ " Kelly said.
Trump interrupted to quip, "only Rosie O’Donnell." A few days later, Trump was more forceful and serious in his denial of Kelly’s premise.
"Well, some of the things that she said, I didn't say, okay?" Trump said on Meet the Press.
That’s False. He’s used those exact words to describe O’Donnell, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, a lawyer who had to pump breast milk and Bette Midler. He also said "it must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees" to female contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice, as Kelly noted.
Oct. 28, 2015: ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator’
At a GOP debate in Colorado, CNBC moderator Becky Quick noted Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Facebook founder "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator, because he was in favor of the H-1B ****."
"I never said that. I never said that," Trump responded.
Pants on Fire! These words appear verbatim on Trump’s campaign website: "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities."
Nov. 11, 2015: Implying China was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
When asked about the pending trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim nations at a Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Trump took to bashing China.
"The TPP is horrible deal," Trump said. "It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone." (For the record, Trump got a Pants on Fire for this claim.)
"You know, we might want to point out that China’s not part of this deal," quipped former rival Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. But a day later, Trump denied suggesting China was a signatory.
While Trump didn’t literally say China was a TPP partner, his denial doesn’t add up. After all, he didn’t name a single country involved in the deal, and he didn’t say "at a later date," as he claimed in the tweet. Even more perplexing is the notion that TPP partners like Japan and Vietnam would "design" a deal to benefit their regional rival.
Jan. 28, 2016: Asking for Megyn Kelly’s removal from a debate
Trump’s war with Kelly led to him boycotting the Fox News/Google debate in Iowa. An hour before the other candidates took the stage, Trump insisted on CNN his absence was due to a mocking Fox News press release and he "never once asked that (Kelly) be removed."
We rated that claim False. We found several instances of Trump and his campaign telling reporters and tweeting about skipping the debate because of Kelly. He went so far as to say Kelly "should not be allowed" to moderate, that she "should recuse herself," and she "shouldn’t be in the debate."
Feb. 11, 2016: Using a curse word to describe Ted Cruz
Trump denied using "a very bad word" — a synonym for cat — at a rally in Manchester, N.H., and demanded an apology from Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin for suggesting he had done so.
But Halperin has no reason to be sorry. There’s video evidence. An audience member called Trump rival Ted Cruz a slur for a woman. Trump repeated the p---- word after telling fans it was a "terrible" word in mock outrage.
Feb. 28, 2016: "I don’t know anything about David Duke"
After being rebuked left and right for declining to reject former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support, Trump claimed he didn’t know anything about Duke at all.
Pants on Fire! Trump knew enough about Duke to denounce him two days earlier and once in August 2015. In 2000, he criticized Duke’s racism in the New York Times. And in 1991, he told Larry King he hated what votes for Duke, who was running for Louisiana Governor, represented.
March 15, 2016: Paying the legal fees of fans who punch protesters
Facing backlash for encouraging violence against protestors at his rallies, Trump denied that he once promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who roughed up protesters.
"I don’t condone violence," Trump said on ABC. "I never said I was going to pay for fees."
But this is what he told supporters in Iowa a month earlier: "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise."
March 16, 2016: Punching protestors in general
The next day, Trump denied that he had encouraged violence at all.
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly scolded Trump for it on his show: "You have said some very questionable things like, ‘maybe we punch them in face’ or something like that."
"I didn’t say that, Bill," Trump responded, before sort of admitting it. "All I did was make the statement, ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it.’"
While O’Reilly’s quote wasn’t exact, Trump’s statements on the matter weren’t exactly dispassionate.
"We’re not allowed to punch back any more. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks," Trump said at his February Las Vegas rally. "The guards are being very gentle with him. ... I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you."
March 30, 2016: Nuking ISIS
Trump denied being open to using nuclear weapons against ISIS at a town hall in Wisconsin.
"I didn’t say, ‘don’t take it (off the table).’ I said I would be very, very slow and hesitant to pull the trigger," he told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Trump is playing a word game here. A few days earlier, he told Bloomberg he'd "never rule anything out" in order to preserve an element of unpredictability.
May 4, 2016: Suggesting that Cruz’s ‘father was with Lee Harvey Oswald’
Trump clinched the Republican nomination in early May, but not before linking Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Fox and Friends. After being widely panned for his Pants on Fire claim, Trump tried to downplay the context of his remarks.
"All I was doing was referring to a picture that was reported and in a magazine," Trump told ABC the morning after he levied the charge and won the primary.
Actually, Trump launched the attack without referring to the photo, which was later mentioned by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. Trump did say "it was reported" before interrupting himself. He then interrupted Kilmeade when the host attempted to provide a source for the claim.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. I mean they don’t even talk about that — that was reported — and nobody ever talks about it," Trump said (around the 5:10 mark).
"Right, there’s a picture out there that reportedly shows Rafael Cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald," Kilmeade said. "I don’t know if that’s been verified —"
"I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting? It’s horrible," Trump said before Kilmeade pivoted to a question about polling.
May 17, 2016: Regretting going after Cruz’s wife
During his patch-up interview with Kelly, Trump denied calling his retweet of an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz "a mistake."
"I am not walking it back," he told Kelly. "But I actually didn’t say it that way. I said, I could have done without it."
But he did say it that way, telling the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, "Yeah, it was a mistake. If I had to do again, I wouldn’t have sent it."
May 31, 2016: Referring to some Republicans as ‘losers’
Trump’s usage of the word "loser" is downright idiosyncratic, yet he denied using his signature insult against his fellow party members, except one in particular.
"Why do you refer to some Republicans and conservatives as losers?" a reporter asked at a May press conference (around the 34:40 mark).
"No, no, I didn’t say that. I said (Weekly Standard editor) Bill Kristol is a loser," Trump replied, then took it back. "I didn’t say everybody. Many, but I didn’t say everybody."
Kristol is by no means the only conservative "loser," according to the presumptive GOP nominee. Here are a few mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of Trump-anointed losers: RedState’s Erick Erickson, columnist George Will, strategist Roger Stone, Bush advisor Karl Rove, blogger Michelle Malkin, pollster Frank Luntz, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, columnist Charles Krauthammer, and John McCain.
And here are a few more not on the Post’s list: Rubio, Jeb Bush, Cruz, Scott Walker, primary rivals who pledged to support the nominee but haven’t, Megyn Kelly, Wall Street Journal’s Mary Kissel, consultant Cheri Jacobus, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, commentator S.E. Cupp, and the Club for Growth.
(Trump’s repertoire of insults is also quite expansive. Here are some more names he’s called conservatives.)
June 2, 2016: Nuclear weapons in Japan
Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of telling "such lies about his foreign policy."
"They said I want Japan to nuke, that I want Japan to get nuclear weapons," Trump said at a rally in Sacramento." Give me a break."
Trump’s denial is Mostly False. While he didn’t literally say he wants Japan to obtain nuclear power, he’s come very close to it several times:
"At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea," he said at a CNN town hall in March.
"Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea," he said on Fox News Sunday a month later. "Maybe they would be better off — including with nukes, yes, including with nukes
June 12, 2016: Mocking a disabled reporter
Responding to an attack ad, Trump charged Clinton with lying about him mocking a disabled reporter.


Donald Trump once claimed to have "the world’s greatest memory," but he seems to suffer bouts of amnesia when it comes to his own statements.
"I never said ____" followed by a charge of media dishonesty is a favorite refrain of the presumptive Republican nominee’s, and it’s something that he’s been doing for years.
For example, in 2014, as he was fighting to prevent wind turbines from being installed near his golf course in Scotland and ruining his views, Trump told a Twitter user he "never said" that "wind farms are a disaster for Scotland." Yet he’s quoted in the Irish Times saying that verbatim.
And just before he jumped into the presidential race, Trump reignited his spat with Jon Stewart, calling the comedian "a wiseguy with no talent" and denying that he ever attacked Stewart for not using his real last name, Leibowitz. But Trump did go after Stewart’s use of a stage name in a series of tweets that many took to be anti-Semitic.
Trump’s forgetfulness during the 2016 cycle has been noted by many, like New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum:
That sounded like a good idea to us. Here are 17 times Trump said something and then denied saying it in chronological order.
July 19, 2015: Saying John McCain is not a war hero
One of the first controversies of his 2016 campaign erupted when the brash billionaire said McCain, a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, isn’t a war hero. Facing intense backlash, Trump didn’t exactly deny his comment, but insisted it was taken out of context.
"Four times, I said he is a hero," he said on July 19 on ABC. "But you know … people choose little selective pieces."
We rated his claim Mostly False. Looking at the transcript, Trump literally said McCain is a hero five times, but never without caveats. Once, he added "perhaps, I believe" before conceding the point. Twice, he was interrupted. And the last two times, Trump said, "He is a war hero because he was captured." In other words, Trump also cherry-picked his interview and misquoted himself.
Aug. 9, 2015: Calling women ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’
Trump’s spat with Fox News host Megyn Kelly began when Kelly brought up various statements Trump made about women at the first GOP presidential debate in August 2015.
"You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,’ " Kelly said.
Trump interrupted to quip, "only Rosie O’Donnell." A few days later, Trump was more forceful and serious in his denial of Kelly’s premise.
"Well, some of the things that she said, I didn't say, okay?" Trump said on Meet the Press.
That’s False. He’s used those exact words to describe O’Donnell, New York Times columnist Gail Collins, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, a lawyer who had to pump breast milk and Bette Midler. He also said "it must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees" to female contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice, as Kelly noted.
Oct. 28, 2015: ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator’
At a GOP debate in Colorado, CNBC moderator Becky Quick noted Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Facebook founder "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator, because he was in favor of the H-1B ****."
"I never said that. I never said that," Trump responded.
Pants on Fire! These words appear verbatim on Trump’s campaign website: "Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities."
Nov. 11, 2015: Implying China was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
When asked about the pending trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim nations at a Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Trump took to bashing China.
"The TPP is horrible deal," Trump said. "It's a deal that was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone." (For the record, Trump got a Pants on Fire for this claim.)
"You know, we might want to point out that China’s not part of this deal," quipped former rival Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. But a day later, Trump denied suggesting China was a signatory.
While Trump didn’t literally say China was a TPP partner, his denial doesn’t add up. After all, he didn’t name a single country involved in the deal, and he didn’t say "at a later date," as he claimed in the tweet. Even more perplexing is the notion that TPP partners like Japan and Vietnam would "design" a deal to benefit their regional rival.
Jan. 28, 2016: Asking for Megyn Kelly’s removal from a debate
Trump’s war with Kelly led to him boycotting the Fox News/Google debate in Iowa. An hour before the other candidates took the stage, Trump insisted on CNN his absence was due to a mocking Fox News press release and he "never once asked that (Kelly) be removed."
We rated that claim False. We found several instances of Trump and his campaign telling reporters and tweeting about skipping the debate because of Kelly. He went so far as to say Kelly "should not be allowed" to moderate, that she "should recuse herself," and she "shouldn’t be in the debate."
Feb. 11, 2016: Using a curse word to describe Ted Cruz
Trump denied using "a very bad word" — a synonym for cat — at a rally in Manchester, N.H., and demanded an apology from Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin for suggesting he had done so.
But Halperin has no reason to be sorry. There’s video evidence. An audience member called Trump rival Ted Cruz a slur for a woman. Trump repeated the p---- word after telling fans it was a "terrible" word in mock outrage.
Feb. 28, 2016: "I don’t know anything about David Duke"
After being rebuked left and right for declining to reject former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support, Trump claimed he didn’t know anything about Duke at all.
Pants on Fire! Trump knew enough about Duke to denounce him two days earlier and once in August 2015. In 2000, he criticized Duke’s racism in the New York Times. And in 1991, he told Larry King he hated what votes for Duke, who was running for Louisiana Governor, represented.
March 15, 2016: Paying the legal fees of fans who punch protesters
Facing backlash for encouraging violence against protestors at his rallies, Trump denied that he once promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who roughed up protesters.
"I don’t condone violence," Trump said on ABC. "I never said I was going to pay for fees."
But this is what he told supporters in Iowa a month earlier: "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise."
March 16, 2016: Punching protestors in general
The next day, Trump denied that he had encouraged violence at all.
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly scolded Trump for it on his show: "You have said some very questionable things like, ‘maybe we punch them in face’ or something like that."
"I didn’t say that, Bill," Trump responded, before sort of admitting it. "All I did was make the statement, ‘I wouldn’t mind doing it.’"
While O’Reilly’s quote wasn’t exact, Trump’s statements on the matter weren’t exactly dispassionate.
"We’re not allowed to punch back any more. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks," Trump said at his February Las Vegas rally. "The guards are being very gentle with him. ... I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you."
March 30, 2016: Nuking ISIS
Trump denied being open to using nuclear weapons against ISIS at a town hall in Wisconsin.
"I didn’t say, ‘don’t take it (off the table).’ I said I would be very, very slow and hesitant to pull the trigger," he told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Trump is playing a word game here. A few days earlier, he told Bloomberg he'd "never rule anything out" in order to preserve an element of unpredictability.
May 4, 2016: Suggesting that Cruz’s ‘father was with Lee Harvey Oswald’

Trump clinched the Republican nomination in early May, but not before linking Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Fox and Friends. After being widely panned for his Pants on Fire claim, Trump tried to downplay the context of his remarks.
"All I was doing was referring to a picture that was reported and in a magazine," Trump told ABC the morning after he levied the charge and won the primary.
Actually, Trump launched the attack without referring to the photo, which was later mentioned by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. Trump did say "it was reported" before interrupting himself. He then interrupted Kilmeade when the host attempted to provide a source for the claim.
"His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right, prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. I mean they don’t even talk about that — that was reported — and nobody ever talks about it," Trump said (around the 5:10 mark).
"Right, there’s a picture out there that reportedly shows Rafael Cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald," Kilmeade said. "I don’t know if that’s been verified —"
"I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting? It’s horrible," Trump said before Kilmeade pivoted to a question about polling.
May 17, 2016: Regretting going after Cruz’s wife
During his patch-up interview with Kelly, Trump denied calling his retweet of an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz "a mistake."
"I am not walking it back," he told Kelly. "But I actually didn’t say it that way. I said, I could have done without it."
But he did say it that way, telling the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, "Yeah, it was a mistake. If I had to do again, I wouldn’t have sent it."
May 31, 2016: Referring to some Republicans as ‘losers’
Trump’s usage of the word "loser" is downright idiosyncratic, yet he denied using his signature insult against his fellow party members, except one in particular.
"Why do you refer to some Republicans and conservatives as losers?" a reporter asked at a May press conference (around the 34:40 mark).
"No, no, I didn’t say that. I said (Weekly Standard editor) Bill Kristol is a loser," Trump replied, then took it back. "I didn’t say everybody. Many, but I didn’t say everybody."
Kristol is by no means the only conservative "loser," according to the presumptive GOP nominee. Here are a few mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of Trump-anointed losers: RedState’s Erick Erickson, columnist George Will, strategist Roger Stone, Bush advisor Karl Rove, blogger Michelle Malkin, pollster Frank Luntz, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, columnist Charles Krauthammer, and John McCain.
And here are a few more not on the Post’s list: Rubio, Jeb Bush, Cruz, Scott Walker, primary rivals who pledged to support the nominee but haven’t, Megyn Kelly, Wall Street Journal’s Mary Kissel, consultant Cheri Jacobus, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, commentator S.E. Cupp, and the Club for Growth.
(Trump’s repertoire of insults is also quite expansive. Here are some more names he’s called conservatives.)
June 2, 2016: Nuclear weapons in Japan
Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of telling "such lies about his foreign policy."
"They said I want Japan to nuke, that I want Japan to get nuclear weapons," Trump said at a rally in Sacramento." Give me a break."
Trump’s denial is Mostly False. While he didn’t literally say he wants Japan to obtain nuclear power, he’s come very close to it several times:
"At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea," he said at a CNN town hall in March.
"Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea," he said on Fox News Sunday a month later. "Maybe they would be better off — including with nukes, yes, including with nukes
June 12, 2016: Mocking a disabled reporter
Responding to an attack ad, Trump charged Clinton with lying about him mocking a disabled reporter.
But he did. There’s video evidence of him mimicking the reporter’s angled hands while flailing his arms and shouting in a strange voice.
June 20, 2016: On guns preventing the Orlando shooting
As Democrats mounted efforts to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando shooting, Trump brought up the proverbial "good guy with a gun" argument, which goes that mass casualties could have been avoided if one civilian in the club were armed.
Under scrutiny for his comment, Trump insisted he meant armed security, not clubgoers.


Obviously, he was not. In an interview on CNN, Trump said armed "people" in general, possibly exercising concealed carry, could have prevented the tragedy, and he ignored a reporter when she pointed out that there was an armed security guard in the club. Here’s the exchange:
Trump: "If you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy you had. If people in that room …"
Reporter: "But there was …"
Trump: "...had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction …"
Reporter: "But Mr. Trump, there was an armed security guard."
Trump: " ...right at him, right at his head, you wouldn't have had the same tragedy that you ended up having. ...But if you had guns in that room, even if you had a number of people having them strapped to their ankle or strapped to their waists, where bullets could have flown in the other direction, you wouldn’t have had the same kind of tragedy."
June 23, 2016: On having one of the world’s best memories
To cap it all, Trump ironically can’t remember bragging about his memory as revealed in his deposition for a Trump University lawsuit. Here’s what he said, according to transcript released in late June:
"Q. You’ve stated though, that you have one of the best memories in the world?
A. I don’t know. Did I use that expression?
Q. Yes.
A. Where? Could I see it?
Q. I can play the video of you reporting it.
A. Did I say I have a great memory or one of the best in the world.
Q. "One of the best in the world" is what the reporter quoted you as saying
A. I don’t remember saying that. As good as my memory is, I don’t remember that, but I have a good memory."
Two weeks before the Dec. 10 deposition, Trump was doubling down his Pants on Fire claim about "thousands and thousands of people were cheering" on 9/11.
"I have the world's greatest memory," he told NBC. "It's one thing everyone agrees on."

AncientBill , try to drum up 1 remaining brain cell and answer this question. Do you honestly think anybody read this novel????????

[stevenash]

AncientBill , try to drum up 1 remaining brain cell and answer this question. Do you honestly think anybody read this novel????????

Read it, it takes me 20 minutes just to scroll down it.

[Bostongambler]

😂 😂 😂