Trump campaign issued $122 million in refunds to donors in 2020
The refunds were given, in part, because of a fine-print disclaimer in communications that officials used to continue charging one-time donors or doubling their contribution amounts.
A
New York Times investigation published Saturday found that starting in September, with only two months to go to before the 2020 presidential election, the Trump campaign allegedly set up weekly recurring donations as the default for online donors.
Donors reportedly had to manually uncheck a box to opt out, and the notice of recurring donations was allegedly included only in a fine-print statement, according to the Times.
The news outlet also found that as Election Day neared, the Trump campaign added a second prechecked box that doubled a person’s contribution, along with new lines of text in bold and capital letters that the paper said distracted from language informing donors on how to opt out of the automatic donation plan.
In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Times found that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee issued more than 530,000 refunds worth roughly $64.3 million to online donors.
Former President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign reportedly issued a total of roughly $122 million in refunds to supporters in 2020. The refunds were given, in part, because of a fine-print discla…
thehill.com