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Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / C.R.E.A.M. Open Thread: The Failing Trump Campaign

C.R.E.A.M. Open Thread: The Failing Trump Campaign

by Anne Laurie|  September 8, 202012:18 am| 97 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2020, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Schadenfreude

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Money concerns are very real for Trump's campaign — an unusual predicament for a sitting president, and one that worries veteran Republican operatives, with Trump so far behind in swing states as the race climaxes. https://t.co/b6JYmEfBR5

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 7, 2020

I don’t believe it. he ran his campaign exactly like everything else he’s bankrupted. just surprising. https://t.co/nyiYQaRQqC

— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 7, 2020

Spare a (fleeting) thought for the dilemma of the Trump court’s unofficial stenographer. On the one hand, Ms. Haberman will never have such a soft and richly rewarded role in the Biden White House. On the other, if the S.S. Trumptanic has cratered on its iceberg, who else has such a saleable stock of ready-made ‘Eyewitness to Infamy’ anecdotes already drafted for a quickie book contract?…

… His rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was relatively broke when he emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee this spring, and Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee had a nearly $200 million cash advantage.

Five months later, Mr. Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter…

Among the splashiest and perhaps most questionable purchases was a pair of Super Bowl ads the campaign reserved for $11 million, according to Advertising Analytics — more than it has spent on TV in some top battleground states. It was a vanity splurge that allowed Mr. Trump to match the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg’s buy for the big game.

There was also a cascade of smaller choices that added up: The campaign hired a coterie of highly paid consultants (Mr. Trump’s former bodyguard and White House aide has been paid more than $500,000 by the R.N.C. since late 2017); spent $156,000 for planes to pull aerial banners in recent months; and paid nearly $110,000 to Yondr, a company that makes magnetic pouches used to store cellphones during fund-raisers so that donors could not secretly record Mr. Trump and leak his remarks…

Critics of the campaign’s management say the lavish spending was ineffective: Mr. Trump enters the fall trailing in most national and battleground state polls, and Mr. Biden has surpassed him as a fund-raising powerhouse, after posting a record-setting haul of nearly $365 million in August. The Trump campaign has not revealed its August fund-raising figure…

Nicholas Everhart, a Republican strategist who owns a firm specializing in placing political ads, said the $800 million spent so far shows the “peril of starting a re-election campaign just weeks after winning.”…

Every one of these grifters has been stealing from the till since the infamous day in 2016 when Putin’s interference first bought a ‘win’ for a complicit GOP, and now they’re squabbling over who should’ve showed a little more fiscal restraint.

Mr. Trump, who once joked he could be the first candidate to make money running for president, has steered, along with the Republican Party, about $4 million into the Trump family businesses since 2019: hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Trump’s club at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, lavish donor retreats at Trump hotels, office space in Trump Tower, and thousands of dollars at the steakhouse in Mr. Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.

Many of the specifics of Mr. Trump’s spending are opaque; since 2017, the campaign and the R.N.C. have routed $227 million through a single limited liability company linked to Trump campaign officials. That firm, American Made Media Consultants, has been used to place television and digital ads and was the subject of a recent Federal Election Commission complaint arguing it was used to disguise the final destination of spending, which has included paychecks to Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the partners of Mr. Trump’s two adult sons…

Mr. Trump has also accumulated many costs that are unusual for a presidential re-election.

Republicans, for instance, have been saddled with extra legal costs, more than $21 million since 2019, resulting from investigations into Mr. Trump and, eventually, his impeachment trial. The R.N.C. also paid a large legal bill of $666,666.67 to Reuters News & Media at the end of June. Both Reuters and the R.N.C. declined to discuss the payment. It was labeled “legal proceedings — IP resolution,” suggesting it was related to a potential litigation over intellectual property…

The Trump crime cartel would certainly like to label Brad Parscale as the one & only villain — he’s made himself a very visible target — but the general thievery and profligacy has been so widely advertised that it’s gonna be hard for the rest of them to come away with whole skins. Especially if (since) Parscale had the minimal good sense to keep his own set of records on which family members got ‘reimbursed’ for every vanity buy & sinecure…

"Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has overseen the campaign from his position as a senior White House aide, had posed for a Fortune magazine cover as the person who ran the 2016 campaign soon after the election." https://t.co/TgAwsBaJRT

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 7, 2020

8. Some interesting on-records from @parscale, who says he made decisions "under the very close eye of the family…No decision was made without their approval.” https://t.co/TgAwsBaJRT

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 7, 2020

10. Worth catching is the amount of money that Trump and related committees have spent on prospecting, roughly a third of what's been raised. Their argument is they have to spend to make. https://t.co/TgAwsBaJRT

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 7, 2020

The marks spend, the Trumps make. Who could have predicted?

ETA: Campaign professional Dana Houle — among many others — is having a good time fisking Haberman’s piece:

Ed Rollins has thoughts about sucking $ from a campaign!

“If you spend $800m & you’re 10 pts behind, I think you’ve got to answer the Q ‘What was the game plan?’” said Ed Rollins who runs a small pro-Trump super PAC, & who accused Mr. Parscale of spending “like a drunken sailor” pic.twitter.com/lTTkKbDIhi

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 8, 2020

There are signs this will be one of those schadenfreudelicious hits that drive a series of Trump-driven charges & countercharges for several news cycles…

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Danielx

    September 8, 2020 at 12:23 am

    There’s looting, and then there’s looting.

    Eta: And why would anybody think Donald Trump would run things any other way?

  2. 2.

    Mike in NC

    September 8, 2020 at 12:25 am

    Fat Bastard ought to ask Brad Parscale for a loan with generous terms. He pocketed most of the money.

  3. 3.

    Calouste

    September 8, 2020 at 12:33 am

    That payment to Reuters of 2/3 of a million suggests that there might be two other payments of 2/3 of a million, adding up to a nice round 2 million.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    September 8, 2020 at 12:34 am

    10. Worth catching is the amount of money that Trump and related committees have spent on prospecting, roughly a third of what’s been raised. Their argument is they have to spend to make.

    For context, how much does fundraising normally cost, if your organization is actually set up to fundraise for itself rather than as a fractal grifting scheme? 5 percent? 10? Higher?

  5. 5.

    CaseyL

    September 8, 2020 at 12:35 am

    I can totally imagine Trump borrowing another trick from the televangelicals: He’ll go on TV and issue a tearful yet stern demand for his followers to send him every cent they have, lest they allow God’s Chosen One to be “driven” from the WH.

    And they will do it, send him everything they have. Maybe even sell off a few body organs to raise the cash…

    …hey, I kind of like this idea.

  6. 6.

    AnotherBruce

    September 8, 2020 at 12:37 am

    federal campaign filings, show that the president’s campaign and the R.N.C. developed some profligate habits as they burned through hundreds of millions of dollars.

    A combination of pure greed and low quality hires. They just can’t keep their filthy fingers off the cookie jar.

  7. 7.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 8, 2020 at 12:38 am

    Parscale’s replacement was chosen for his willingness to lie to Trump.  He’ll grift way more than Parscale did.  Trump has spouted a lot of angry “Nuh-UH!  My people tell me I’m winning!” when the news features his godawful polling numbers.  I see no reason to doubt that they really are coddling the tantruming brat while robbing him blind.

  8. 8.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 8, 2020 at 12:38 am

    Sounds like maybe Trump—or his cronies?—have realized they’re going to lose and started the bust-out operation.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    September 8, 2020 at 12:40 am

    Lesson #1.
    Attractive as the sticker price on the lot may be, never buy the “Manager’s Special” Death Star.

    //

  10. 10.

    Kristine

    September 8, 2020 at 12:41 am

    Surprised that Trump hasn’t taken a page from the McSally playbook and asked people to skip meals.

    That said, the month is still young.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    September 8, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @Kristine

    In his case it would be “Skip a boat payment.”

    :)

  12. 12.

    RaflW

    September 8, 2020 at 12:45 am

    David Roberts has started an interesting late night thread on the daddy complexes the Trump donors must have, given the apparently very strange tone of their fund-begging/fund-threatening emails.

    @drvox
    I’ve somehow gotten on a Trump email list & I’m getting tons of emails from the campaign & holy shit it is illuminating. They must have done research that shows their base responds to this tone/approach … and I can’t think of a more damning thing to say about their base.

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    September 8, 2020 at 12:47 am

    well, I for one, would kindly tell Ms. Haberman to take a big healthy swig of stfu and to make sure that she fingers out the grinds at the bottom of the cup and keep them for her next cup because if I’m Joe Biden, I would happily inform them that access to his administration is now restricted to reporters who don’t have a book deal in progress.

    That should happily eliminate most of the grifter-journos that work for the NYT.

  14. 14.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    September 8, 2020 at 12:48 am

    The only thing about this guy that even comes anywhere near being a redeeming quality is how inevitably he fucks himself over, along with everybody around him.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    September 8, 2020 at 12:52 am

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    “Whaddaya mean I can’t declare the entire cost of the campaign as a tax deduction?”

    //

  16. 16.

    RaflW

    September 8, 2020 at 12:53 am

    @Anne

    There are signs this will be one of those schadenfreudelicious hits that drive a series of Trump-driven charges & countercharges for several news cycles…

    Sure would be a shame if this triggered some more deck-chair rearrangements with eight weeks to go.

    I keep wondering if downballot Repubs are shitting bricks. But they may be too far gone into the Fox-o-sphere to even notice. Can a new round of ‘unskew the polls!’ be far behind?

  17. 17.

    guachi

    September 8, 2020 at 12:54 am

    Since this story is now a FP story I am going to replay how I managed to copy edit a line in this story. The original story had been online for about 2.5 hours. The story had “stationary store” in it. I replied to Haberman’s tweet saying it was a typo and probably should be “stationery store”. Within a minute Shane Goldmacher, who was tagged in the tweet and the other author, “liked” my tweet and minutes later the online story was corrected.

    Yes, a BJ reader edited a story on the NYT for a typo. I am internet famous.

  18. 18.

    RaflW

    September 8, 2020 at 12:58 am

    @guachi: Thank you, that was an irritating one. But also a reminder that Sulzberger and Baquet continue to be absolute shits to the business of news. They’ve drastically cut the size of the copy desk over the years — as have all newspapers, though those other papers don’t crow about their growing subscriber bases.

    My partner was a big city daily copy desk man for many years. It is hard work, and poorly recognized. And these days, a cost center to be strangled. (He got out when buyouts were still in the local union contract.)

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 12:59 am

    I don’t believe it. he ran his campaign exactly like everything else he’s bankrupted. just surprising.

    Hahaha!  Sad Soviet shitpile!  Fuck ’em!

  20. 20.

    Kent

    September 8, 2020 at 12:59 am

    @AnotherBruce: And it will all be spent on Trump properties and family consulting fees as they pack up and cash out..

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:02 am

    Mr. Trump has also accumulated many costs that are unusual for a presidential re-election.

    Yes – having to flee to somewhere the Russki mob can’t find you is very unusual!

    May we loyal Americans suggest the bottom of the Marianas Trench, you fat, orange, fascist, Soviet shitpile mobster conman?

  22. 22.

    tokyokie

    September 8, 2020 at 1:03 am

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Sounds like maybe Trump—or his cronies?—have realized they’re going to lose and started the bust-out operation.

    Not exactly. I think grifters have been skimming from the beginning, including, notably, Trump himself, with all the money paid to his resorts and hotels for retreats and the like. They thought the skim would always be there, but they didn’t countenance Trump totally screwing up the pandemic, the economy, and the response to civil unrest. The fat cats who put up big dough previously are now shutting their wallets as they’ve written Trump off as a bad investment. And the crappy grifters throughout his campaign and family cannot really explain where all the money went

     

    So how’s the weather in your neck of the burning woods? Can you breathe safely yet?

  23. 23.

    Damien

    September 8, 2020 at 1:06 am

    Ok, so the looting has started, now I was promised the shooting would start.

  24. 24.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 8, 2020 at 1:09 am

    @guachi: Was the store moving?  No?  Then it could be a stationary store.  //

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:12 am

    There are signs this will be one of those schadenfreudelicious hits that drive a series of Trump-driven charges & countercharges for several news cycles…

    ???️?

    ???

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:15 am

    When does the email go out begging his white trash supporters to sell their sunken boats and contribute to his campaign?

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @NotMax: Excuse me, excuse me, it’s a luxurious and classy Death Star.  The tremendous bigliest Death Star ever.  Believe me.

    …

    You’re the Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby!  And a total loser!  I’m tremendous bigly!  Buy my Death Star!

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @tokyokie:

    but they didn’t countenance Trump totally screwing up the pandemic, the economy, and the response to civil unrest 

    Dumb.

    Ass.

    Stupid.

    Shitpiles.

    Any questions?

  29. 29.

    phdesmond

    September 8, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @NotMax: do you know about this case?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_of_Rockefeller_v._Commissioner

    the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that section 162(a) of the Internal Revenue Code only allows deductions against income for expenses that occur while carrying on a trade or business.

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    September 8, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @Damien: I was promised explosions…

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 1:32 am

    @Yutsano: No.  No Earth-shattering kaboom.  Good people live here.  Good people as well as Russthuglicans.

  32. 32.

    scav

    September 8, 2020 at 1:37 am

    Maybe it’ll be enough of a balm to his anti-soul to magically determine that he’s the first candidate to make money losing an election that he’ll swan over to his golf course to crow about it to a passing rowboat.

  33. 33.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    September 8, 2020 at 1:46 am

     

    He squandered all his daddy’s money.

    He squandered gop’s control of Congress and the Senate.

    He squandered all his contributors’s contributions.

     

    It’s early, but a pattern is starting to emerge.

    The Art of the Deal Fail

  34. 34.

    Yutsano

    September 8, 2020 at 2:02 am

    @Mike in NC:  PFFT!!! Parscale has already blown a wad of it! Plus there is no way anyone in the US will loan the Oval Office Occupant anything. He’s so far underwater you might as well burn the cash in the backyard.

  35. 35.

    Mary G

    September 8, 2020 at 2:05 am

    I think I read somewhere that Twitler was rude to Adelson on a phone call, got hung up on and donations cut off. You don’t get rich throwing good money after bad.

    And he’s still being a dick about masks:
    Trump asks reporter to take off his mask during White House presser

    During a news conference on Monday, President Trump asked Reuters reporter Jeff Mason to take off his face mask to ask a question, saying he was “very muffled,” and the reporter refused. Later on, Trump lauded a reporter who removed his mask to ask a question, saying “you sound so clear as opposed to everyone else where they refuse.

     

    ETA: Also, too, I’m dying to know why Keith Schiller, former bodyguard, got $500,000 after he left the WH. That’s a lot of secrets he’s hiding.

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    September 8, 2020 at 2:14 am

    Kamala is so cute – she tells the group that early voting in Milwaukee starts October 20, which is her birthday, so she needs their votes:

    After her roundtable with Black biz owners in Milwaukee, @KamalaHarris walked out to address ~45 fans standing across the street. “I need your help in Milwaukee, OK? We’re going to get this done. Make sure everybody votes early, right?” @axios pic.twitter.com/NYiZBBseYR— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) September 7, 2020

  37. 37.

    different-church-lady

    September 8, 2020 at 2:27 am

    I’m not sure if this is describing a presidential campaign or a rock band in the 70s.

  38. 38.

    different-church-lady

    September 8, 2020 at 2:29 am

    @RaflW:

    They must have done research that shows their base responds to this tone/approach …

    Why would he assume it’s due to research? It might just be the only way their minds work.

  39. 39.

    Redshift

    September 8, 2020 at 2:34 am

    This is my favorite bit from Maggie’s tweets:

    But the Trump campaign was relying on low-dollar $ continuing apace, but it didn’t

    Heh. I’m guessing this mean the rubes aren’t ponying up without the Trump Show. And that can’t mean anything good about the supposed “enthusiasm” of Trump voters.

  40. 40.

    Martin

    September 8, 2020 at 2:34 am

    @different-church-lady: This stuff is tested pretty aggressively. I don’t even think Parscale is dumb enough to not dynamically test the messages – it’s pretty standard now.

  41. 41.

    The Moar You Know

    September 8, 2020 at 2:35 am

    Big Pharma has decided they’re not going down with the Trumptanic. 

    That orange fuck has done such a hatchet job on the FDA that the pharma industry, not willing to destroy themselves for the nonexistent rewards of a Fat Bastard second term, are simply going to regulate themselves WRT coronavirus vaccine safety in a far more responsible way than the current incarnation of the FDA will.

    Which says all that needs to be said about how effective Trump has been at his real job:  destroying the United States government.

  42. 42.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 8, 2020 at 2:36 am

    @different-church-lady: The rock band had better drugs.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 2:36 am

    @different-church-lady: There was a 70’s rock band who was a traitorous, orange, racist, fascistic, pussy-grabbing, Soviet shitpile mobster crime family who’d been sucking the Kremlin’s asshole for years?  Obviously they were terrible.

  44. 44.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 8, 2020 at 2:38 am

    @Martin:

    I don’t even think Parscale is dumb enough

    Let me stop you right there, yes he is.

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    September 8, 2020 at 2:40 am

    @mrmoshpotato: C’mon now, Fleetwood Mac wasn’t that bad.

  46. 46.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 2:43 am

    @different-church-lady: Oh my flying spaghetti monster!  That’s terrible!

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    September 8, 2020 at 2:47 am

    That US$800 million is comparable to the kind of money that was stolen from the Malaysian people in the 1MDB scandal. But at least we Malaysians got a Martin Scorsese movie for our money.

  48. 48.

    Mary G

    September 8, 2020 at 3:00 am

    All national forests in central and southern CA closed

    This is pretty unprecedented. The US forest service has shut down essentially all forests in central and Southern California because of extreme fire danger after the California National Guard had to rescue more than 200 campers from an inferno near Mammoth Pool Reservoir https://t.co/ztpEi9YLk8— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) September 8, 2020

  49. 49.

    Mary G

    September 8, 2020 at 3:01 am

    @Mary G:

    Leaving Lone Pine pic.twitter.com/MnB3SAbx8j— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) September 8, 2020

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    September 8, 2020 at 3:05 am

    @NotMax:

    The one they want you to buy is the one you should never buy.

    If you are good you can string them along for something better but the safest thing to do is if they push one really, really hard, it may actually be the best of the lot and walking away is the only safe bet.

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    September 8, 2020 at 3:10 am

    @tokyokie:

    This is the first night in a bit that I can open the windows and get some new stale air in the place because this is the first night in that bit that it’s cooler outside than the AC is set to.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    September 8, 2020 at 3:11 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    You stole my swear…….

  53. 53.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 8, 2020 at 3:13 am

    @tokyokie: Yeah, that sounds more plausible.

    Thankfully, it’s starting to cool down, and the air quality is back at safe levels at the moment.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    September 8, 2020 at 3:14 am

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    No it’s the Art of the deal, just from the losing perspective.

    shitforbrains knows that perspective really, really well.

  55. 55.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 8, 2020 at 3:15 am

    @Mary G: If we had only raked…

  56. 56.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 8, 2020 at 3:19 am

    @Yutsano, @mrmoshpotato:

    No Boom Today… Boom Tomorrow

  57. 57.

    Martin

    September 8, 2020 at 3:20 am

    @Mary G: Now we just need to ban outdoor gender reveal parties.

    Just cut a cake, people. Stop shooting shit.

  58. 58.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 8, 2020 at 3:23 am

    @Ruckus: Saturday night I got back from shooting at Leo Carrillo and it was 93 at 10:30pm.

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    September 8, 2020 at 3:28 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yep, it’s been a tad warm in CA. Maybe it’s the fires warming it up….

    Maybe it’s the gender revel parties that set the countryside on fire, hottest party in town. Or out. My question was do you think they will treat the kid any better than they did the party grounds?

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 3:32 am

    @Ruckus: Haha.  Completely unintentional.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 8, 2020 at 3:37 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: True.  I looked at our forecast.  T-storms for Chicago tomorrow. ? A little rain right now.

  62. 62.

    TS (the original)

    September 8, 2020 at 3:50 am

    @piratedan:

     I would happily inform them that access to his administration is now restricted to reporters who don’t have a book deal in progress.

    I would tell them access is restricted to reporters when they attend the daily WH news conference, where they have to be nominated by their employer & accepted by the White House.

  63. 63.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 8, 2020 at 3:57 am

    @Martin: Instead of cake, they should hand out wallets. If there’s a dollar inside, it’s a boy. If it’s 72 cents, it’s a girl.

  64. 64.

    Sloane Ranger

    September 8, 2020 at 4:04 am

    @Mary G:

     

    During a news conference on Monday, President Trump asked Reuters reporter Jeff Mason to take off his face mask to ask a question, saying he was “very muffled,” and the reporter refused. Later on, Trump lauded a reporter who removed his mask to ask a question, saying “you sound so clear as opposed to everyone else where they refuse.

    Mason was interviewed on CNN later and said that he thinks Trump may have a hearing problem and this could be part of the reason he dislikes masks as they do muffle the sound a bit and prevent lip reading.

    I have no doubt that his campaign is in financial trouble at the moment but what about all the PAC’s? Republicans seem to love them. Presumably they still have money and are spending it? And, as the days tick by, is there a chance the big donors will get cold feet about a Biden presidency and restart the money tap, or is it already too late for that to have much impact even if they did?

  65. 65.

    TS (the original)

    September 8, 2020 at 4:04 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    From your link – some self interest, but, everything trump touches turns to dust including the FDA.

    The pharmaceutical industry has to be vocal, though.

    Why? The FDA has long been seen as the global gold standard among regulators. No government agency is perfect, but Trump is sadly undermining its credibility. If he keeps this up, it will only make it harder for companies to later point to the FDA as validation for the safety and effectiveness of their products.

     

  66. 66.

    sgrAstar

    September 8, 2020 at 5:06 am

    @RaflW: I’ve started getting those texts from the trump campaign too. Very much in the style of ‘I’m gonna count to three. One…Two…..’ Totally reminds me of my Dad trying to get me up for school. Donate, OR ELSE!!! Wondering if that involves pouring a glass of cold water on my head…?

    ?

  67. 67.

    satby

    September 8, 2020 at 5:33 am

    Anyone see this news report about dumped mail in L.A?

  68. 68.

    Gvg

    September 8, 2020 at 6:16 am

    @Amir Khalid: I would bet we will get a lot more than one movie….I’ll even speculate they won’t all be made by Americans. I’ll bet we are going to be obsessed with analyzing this mess for decades after.

  69. 69.

    Central Planning

    September 8, 2020 at 6:26 am

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    The Art of the Deal Fail

    May I humbly suggest: The Art of the Steal

  70. 70.

    CarolDuhart2

    September 8, 2020 at 6:28 am

    About PACs:  while they can spend money independently-independent expenditures lack the feedback loop and strategic info of a campaign.  And this is the time where targeting is most essential.

    And the GOTV part of a campaign? One of my least fond political memories was Election Day 2004, when I and my crew was knocking doors while separate PACS were also having their doorknocking crews.  Duplication of effort was an understatement.  I’m sure we missed some people, and other people had their doors knocked repeatedly.  And this was Ohio, ground zero for Kerry’s campaign.  I so appreciated the Obama campaign’s efforts in 2008.  No duplication of efforts and clear walk lists, which is possible when everything is inhouse-the strategy, the outreach, whatever.  Obama had the money on lock and was able to spend money on the nuts and bolts as well as ads.  Which is why we probably won that year.

    Separate PACs mean separate crews, and since they can’t coordinate with the campaign (and barely with each other), they lack the necessary focus for results.

  71. 71.

    Chyron HR

    September 8, 2020 at 6:42 am

    @CarolDuhart2:

    About PACs: while they can spend money independently-independent expenditures lack the feedback loop and strategic info of a campaign.

    Because that would require Republicans do to something illegal.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    September 8, 2020 at 7:02 am

    They have been skimming off the top middle and bottom from the beginning.

     

    I read something yesterday that they have spent $60 million on lawyers to keep his tax returns hidden ??

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    September 8, 2020 at 7:03 am

    @satby:

    Uh huh

    Uh huh ??

  74. 74.

    rikyrah

    September 8, 2020 at 7:04 am

    @TS (the original):

    Biden needs to clean house ?

  75. 75.

    PaulWartenberg

    September 8, 2020 at 7:04 am

    One of things standing out for me in those expenses listed as budget-shredding has been the insanely high “Consulting” fees that look like bribes/payoffs to keep certain people’s mouths shut. But it’s been a thing bugging me for years: campaign consultants charging top dollar at jobs that don’t look much like jobs because the real work is being done by office managers and field coordinators. From what I can tell, you can get a handful of “consultants” charging $100,000 per month and then add on their expenses and all of a sudden your bills skyrocket into the tens of millions.

    Is there any oversight into campaign costs?

  76. 76.

    CarolDuhart2

    September 8, 2020 at 7:07 am

    @Chyron HR: I’m not saying they wouldn’t ask the campaign for info, it’s just that there wouldn’t be the same control of anything, and with duplicate PACs, there would be duplication of effort-especially if the PAC doesn’t think the campaign is giving enough effort and emphasis on their particular hobby horse.

  77. 77.

    Morzer

    September 8, 2020 at 7:09 am

    @Mary G: Schiller was with Trumpigula on that infamous trip to Russia.  Given what we now know about his twisted hatred of Obama and Melania’s refusal to use a bathroom used by the Obamas, I think the golden showers story may well be more credible than it was at first glance,

  78. 78.

    Morzer

    September 8, 2020 at 7:12 am

    @Martin: The sort of messages the Trump rabble are sending out sound remarkably like the cretinous bullying practiced by fraudsters like Paula White. I imagine that the target audience is pretty much the same.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    September 8, 2020 at 7:15 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    shooting at Leo Carrillo

    Given his age, he probably wasn’t doing to much to dodge the bullets. Or was Duncan Renaldo there, to protect him?

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    September 8, 2020 at 7:18 am

    @Sloane Ranger:

    or is it already too late for that to have much impact even if they did?

    Maybe, but not too late for this year’s version of Comey to do some major ratfucking. Fortunately, there’s no one in power at the DOJ who would ever consider doing THAT.

  81. 81.

    TS (the original)

    September 8, 2020 at 7:25 am

    @rikyrah:

    The cleanup list is way longer than my mother’s spring clean list & she would clean that house from top to bottom/inside out.

  82. 82.

    Kelly

    September 8, 2020 at 7:41 am

    Wel p we had to evacuate our woodsy little house due to a wildfire along the santiam River in Oregon. Currently sitting in a parking lot waiting for daylight figure out what we’re going to do next. Mrs Kelly is napping in the car next to me she has the cats. We have family to stay with not far away. May have to expand our covid bubble

  83. 83.

    Bruce K

    September 8, 2020 at 7:46 am

    @SFAW:

    Fortunately, there’s no one in power at the DOJ who would ever consider doing THAT.

    Irony and sarcasm noted, but I think it’d be fair to say that there’s nobody left in power positions at the DOJ with the credibility to successfully deliver a Comey-level hit job. Barr would absolutely attempt it, but isn’t he pretty much universally known to be in the tank for Trump at this point?

  84. 84.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 8, 2020 at 8:09 am

    Speaking of Trump campaign problems, I’ve been noticing a rash of Trump Campaign adverts pushing cheep junk; bottle openers, pens and so on, for sale.

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    September 8, 2020 at 8:26 am

    @Bruce K:

    Barr would absolutely attempt it, but isn’t he pretty much universally known to be in the tank for Trump at this point?

    I think you’re assuming that the “undecided” or “on-the-fence” (a/k/a “moron”) voters are as tuned in to this stuff as we are. I don’t think that’s necessarily a valid assumption (although it may be). If they haven’t been following/noticing Barr’s corruption, then I can see his October ratfucking operation having an effect.

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 8, 2020 at 8:38 am

    @The Moar You Know: Speaking as someone in the medical biz, it’s not the just the FDA who regulates; there is the EU, Brazil, India and even Russia and China, all of whom are more than happy to jump on American companies acting evil.

  87. 87.

    artem1s

    September 8, 2020 at 8:40 am

    magnetic pouches used to store cellphones during fund-raisers so that donors could not secretly record Mr. Trump and leak his remarks…

    interesting.  when you start making high end donors give up their cell phones at the door that tends to piss people off.  and means that they will absolutely believe it when they find out Dolt is trash talking people when the cameras are off.  these types of donors tend not to give when you treat them like the rest of the rubes out there.

  88. 88.

    raven

    September 8, 2020 at 8:42 am

    @Kelly: Be safe! My friends in Paradise have almost finished their rebuild.

  89. 89.

    scribbler

    September 8, 2020 at 9:25 am

    @Kelly:   How frightening for you and yours.  I hope everything turns out okay, and you and the kitties stay safe!

  90. 90.

    chopper

    September 8, 2020 at 9:50 am

    this sort of thing is what’s really going to get under trump’s skin. all the stories about him hating on veterans makes him look bad, sure, but losing money? having someone else skimming off the top instead of him? that’s going to make him really blow his top.

  91. 91.

    Geeno

    September 8, 2020 at 10:10 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: Lasagna – sausage/no sausage. It’s the only proper way.

  92. 92.

    Big Mango

    September 8, 2020 at 10:15 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVtn-HZELw

  93. 93.

    Bill Arnold

    September 8, 2020 at 11:07 am

    @RaflW:

    given the apparently very strange tone of their fund-begging/fund-threatening emails.

    OK. Here’s the Labor Day email from rnchq, tracker links and whitespace removed.
    Basically, it’s a sale on hats, peddling an utterly fraudulent message about DJT’s support for Workers, which DJT has been pushing this weekend.

    LABOR DAY FLASH SALE
    Bill,
    The Republican Party is the party of the American Worker, the American Family, and the American Dream.
    President Trump has proven he will ALWAYS be a champion for American Workers and now he wants to do something SPECIAL for YOU. For Labor Day, we’ve put our ICONIC Trump American Worker Hat on SALE for only $37 $27.
    We are only offering this exclusive discount to a small group of supporters, like YOU, Bill, so please do not share this offer with anyone.
    Please contribute $37 $27 IMMEDIATELY and we’ll send you one of our Trump American Worker Hats. >>
    American Workers Hat
    [CONTRIBUTE $XX] buttons]
    To the hardworking men and women across America, YOU are the reason President Trump will fight for four more years. Claim your hat now. >>
    Contribute [XXX] RIGHT NOW to get your Trump American Worker Hat.
    Thanks,
    Team Trump 2020
    P.S. As always, everything is made in the U.S.A.
    [CONTRIBUTE $XX]

    OK. Let’s start with the current United States Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia (son of Antonin Scalia):
    “During his career in private practice, Scalia has sustained a long record of defending major corporations against financial and labor regulations”
    and saying that OSHA can’t regulate the single by far greatest threat the American workers, COVID-19 safety rules:
    “According to a former Senior OSHA official, Scalia’s belief that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has no role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has been credited with exacerbating the failure to control the disease.”

    Now this: “The Republican Party is the party of the American Worker, the American Family, and the American Dream.”
    In this reality the Republican Party is the Party of the Wealhty, and by proxy, the party of Management and the Job Creators. If they create jobs, well, that at least is potentially good for workers.

    and
    “To the hardworking men and women across America, YOU are the reason President Trump will fight for four more years.” – well no, DJT is fighting for 4 more years to fend off trials and potential prison sentences.

  94. 94.

    J R in WV

    September 8, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @guachi: 

    You are Internet Hilarious, is what you are!!! Congrats!

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    September 8, 2020 at 11:59 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    That US$800 million is comparable to the kind of money that was stolen from the Malaysian people in the 1MDB scandal. But at least we Malaysians got a Martin Scorsese movie for our money.

    You also got rid of a larcenous Prime Minister in your scandal, just as a bonus.

    I’m hoping we get that bonus too!! Looking good so far…

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    September 8, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Mason was interviewed on CNN later and said that he thinks Trump may have a hearing problem and this could be part of the reason he dislikes masks as they do muffle the sound a bit and prevent lip reading.

     

    Those nightclubs where Trump and his pal Jeff Epstein used to hang out, they were really loud… I mean REALLY LOUD which could have caused loss of hearing by now.

    I’ve loved some loud music, and fired loud pistols, etc, and have tinnitus and loss of hearing to show for it. I suspect Studio 54 was louder than local music in WV… Lots louder!

  97. 97.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 8, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    @Bill Arnold:American Worker Hat on SALE for only $37 $27.

    Like I said, it’s all adverts for cheep ass junk now from the Trump Campaign.

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