Evidence is mounting that Donald Trump may have defrauded donors when he solicited funds to challenge the 2020 election result but then diverted donations elsewhere. If confirmed, it would hardly be the first time he has used bait-and-switch tactics to swindle and deceive those naive enough to have trusted him.
As someone in the P.T. Barnum era famously said, there’s a sucker born every minute. As another said, a fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place. Trump appears to have built his financial empire off a firm belief in these adages. He is under court order to testify in New York for having falsely inflated his net worth to banks to obtain loans and then falsely understated his properties’ values to get a lower tax rate. He has bilked construction contractors and others to whom he owed money. So why not his own supporters?
“Not only was there the Big Lie, there was the Big Rip-Off,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., referring to Trump’s solicitation of donations to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.
