Greene & Gaetz’s National Traitor Tour Takes Donations But Loses Money

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Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have apparently yet to break even — far from it, in fact — on their ongoing nationwide rally tour, which most recently involved a gathering outside of city hall in Riverside, California. Originally, the events began all the way on the other side of the country, with a stop in Central Florida. Along the way, Gaetz and Greene have “repeatedly held high-profile events and spent a whopping $287,036.19 to hold them,” the Daily Beast explains — but their joint fundraising effort, called “Put America First,” raised just $59,345.54 across that timeframe. That’s a gap of over $225,000.

The yet to be recouped losses aren’t exactly a surprise. In California, Gaetz and Greene were cancelled on by three venues, including one that dropped the duo hours before their planned joint event was set to begin. Their failure to secure an event space left them to have their gathering outside of the Riverside city hall building, where, alongside other nonsense, Gaetz falsely described Trump as the rightful winner of last year’s election. Gaetz and Greene were met with boos. Since May 7 of this year — the kick-off date of “Put America First” — the Gaetz and Greene campaigns, alongside their joint fundraising operation, have sustained a combined loss of $342,000.

Notably, the numbers revealing the dismal state of the Gaetz-Greene operation go on from there. As of the recent filings, just four people had given $500 or more to the joint fundraising committee. Some of the money that has come into “Put America First,” which includes $150,000 from both the Gaetz and Greene campaigns, has gone out to the Logan Circle Group, a public relations firm that has been doing work for Gaetz. In the second quarter of this year, that company got a whopping $825,000 from Gaetz, in addition to a quarter of a million dollars from the Put America First coffers. According to filings, the money from Put America First was for “event production and management.”

Despite the poor financial showing for the Put America First operation, the duo leading the effort is apparently planning to go forward. According to a Gaetz campaign spokesperson, “Congressman Gaetz and Congresswoman Greene look forward to announcing new stops on the America First tour in the coming weeks.” Only time will tell if those stops will have better luck hanging onto a venue than the California event.