The Trump team should get a Guinness World Record for the number of scandals maintained by a single presidential administration at the same time or something. In recent days, outrage has erupted over Trump ally David Bossie getting revealed as a major grifter, who funneled millions of dollars into his pocket that he raised under the pretense of supporting Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. Apparently, Trump himself is enraged too, having at one point told close advisers “that Bossie’s alleged scheme was brazen and egregious enough to warrant a swift, public response,” which they eventually offered — although not before deleting explicit references to Bossie and his organization, the so-called “Presidential Coalition.”
Still, the campaign was blunt, sharing:
‘There is no excuse for any group, including ones run by people who claim to be part of our ‘coalition,’ to suggest they directly support President Trump’s re-election or any other candidates, when in fact their actions show they are interested in filling their own pockets with money from innocent Americans’ paychecks, and sadly, retirements. We encourage the appropriate authorities to investigate all alleged scam groups for potential illegal activities.’
Bossie’s organization had raised about $18.5 million since 2017, but only about $425,000 went to the actual political activity it was marketed as for. The rest lined the pockets of Bossie and his associates via direct salary and payment to an array of affiliated firms that circle back to the same key players. Bossie ending up here is a rather dramatic fall from grace after he served as the deputy Trump campaign manager in the home stretch of the 2016 presidential race, although he never managed an actual job in the administration or even at the Republican National Committee.
The irony here is that Trump has engaged in loads of the same kind of “self-dealing” that Bossie is credibly accused of. His charitable foundation went down in metaphorical flames over the president and his family repeatedly using funds for personal expenses like buying a portrait of the president and contributing a bribe to a Florida political campaign, and the case has drawn the Trumps into a drawn out legal battle with New York state authorities.
Remarkably, what Bossie is accused of gets worse, although it’s unclear what actual tangible legal trouble it could land him in thus far. One of his group’s leading fundraising vendors faced accusations from the Federal Trade Commission of engaging in “false and misleading” business tactics and from former employees of “preying on the elderly.” To get out of that case, the firm — known as InfoCision — paid a settlement.
Overall, the Trump re-election campaign itself has already amassed a formidable base of funds, bringing in some $30.3 million in the first quarter of this year alone, which is more than the combined totals of the top two fundraising hauls for Democratic presidential candidates from Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.).
On his first official day in the race, which came after the first quarter ended, former Vice President Joe Biden brought in about $6.3 million, suggesting he’s on pace to be a formidably funded opponent to Trump should he make it out of the Democratic presidential primary field.
Featured Image via screenshot
