Former President Trump ripped into the latest “failing” New York Times for its “completely misleading” investigation hit-piece on Monday regarding his campaign issuing millions in refunds to donors who claimed they unwittingly signed up to be recurring donors, saying the “dispute rate” was less than 1 percent while adding that Republicans defeated the “cheating Democrats” at their own fundraising game.
In an emailed statement from his Save America PAC, Trump slammed the newspaper for seeking to “disparage” his campaign’s grassroots financial support.
“In yet another highly partisan story, the failing New York Times wrote a completely misleading, one-sided attack piece this weekend that tried to disparage our record-setting grassroots fundraising operation during the 2020 campaign,” Trump said.
“Except for massive voter fraud, this was a campaign that was easily won by your favorite Republican President, me!” Trump added. “Our support in 2020 was so big—never before seen (received more votes than any sitting President in history, by far), that it has become a major threat to the Democrat Party, which explains why the New York Times immediately rushed to defend their Radical Left allies.”
The New York Times published an article over the weekend highlighting how the Trump campaign operation issued $122 million in total refunds to online donors during the final months of 2020 it raised on WinRed, the for-profit company that processed its online donations. The amount refunded was higher than those issued by President Biden’s campaign and Democratic groups.
The unusual number of refunds was reportedly driven in part by online donors who mostly had unwittingly agreed to weekly recurring payments to Trump’s political operation. At issue in the Times reporting was a fine-print disclaimer of a “small and bright yellow box” with a pre-checked mark box that defaulted donors into making a recurring weekly contribution — called the money bomb.
According to the Times, in the final two-and-a-half-month stretch of 2020, the Trump campaign and the RNC reportedly issued more than 530,000 refunds that totaled $64.3 million while Biden and Democratic committees using ActBlue reportedly issued 37,000 refunds totaling only $5.6 million.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller disputed the Times’ characterization.
“The fact we had a dispute rate of less than 1 percent of total donations despite raising more grass-roots money than any campaign in history is remarkable,” Miller told The New York Times. “Our campaign was built by the hardworking men and women of America and cherishing their investments was paramount to anything else we did.”
In his statement on Monday, Trump said his campaign effectively raised large amounts of money by replicating “liberal ActBlue” strategies that led to his campaign fundraising success of raising over $1 billion. He also acknowledged that the refunds did occur in “certain cases” to those who “would give too much.”
“We learned from liberal ActBlue—and now we’re better than they are! In fact, many people were so enthusiastic that they gave over and over, and in certain cases where they would give too much, we would promptly refund their contributions. Our overall dispute rate was less than 1% of total online donations, a very low number,” Trump said.
“The New York Times knew this but buried these details in their story,” Trump continued. “Our fundraising efforts, working together with the Republican party, were all done legally, and all with the goal of ensuring that my Administration could continue to Make America Great Again. The Election, on the other hand, was massively rigged and stolen—and now look what is happening to our Country, and in particular at our southern border.”
Trump concluded his statement thanking the 75 million who voted or donated to his presidential campaign, saying “the best is yet to come!”
2020 ElectionActBlueDonald TrumpJason MillerMoney BombNew York TimesPresident TrumpRepublican National CommitteeRNCSave AmericaTrump 2020 CampaignTrump CampaignVirtual FundraiserWinRed
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