Dear Commons Community,

Within hours of former President Donald Trump being federally indicted, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) was  fundraising off of the news ― for Trump, but almost entirely for herself.

“President Trump has been indicted on federal charges,” reads the subject line of a Thursday-night email from Team Elise, Stefanik’s joint fundraising committee.

“Biden’s weaponized federal government has handed President Trump BOGUS CHARGES over the ‘Boxes Hoax,’” says the email. “They are just trying to keep him out of the White House in 2024. President Trump needs ALL of his loyal supporters to stand with him at this crucial time.”

“RUSH A DONATION TO OUR OFFICIAL TRUMP DEFENSE FUND TO STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP,” the email shouts.  As reported by The Huffington Post.

It’s pretty tacky to raise money off of a former president being indicted, but that’s not the worst of it. Stefanik uses a sneaky tactic in her fundraising email to try to get as much money from people as possible, even if they may not realize what they’re agreeing to.

Her email is set up so that if you click through to donate money to Trump, the website automatically checks a little box making your donation a monthly recurring donation. You have to be paying attention to notice this.

Stefanik’s fundraising email automatically checks a box that signs people up to give recurring donations to her and Trump.

And even though Stefanik’s fundraising email and landing page say these donations are for an official defense fund for Trump, when you read the fine print, you can see that virtually all of that money is set up to go to Stefanik.

Underneath brightly colored graphics of suggested donation amounts that you can directly click on ― $100, $500 or even $3,300, the maximum donation allowed ― is a tiny sentence that says to click on it for details about how your donation will be allocated. It’s here that you can see where your money is automatically set up to go.

There’s a tiny sentence in Elise Stefanik’s fundraising email that, if you see it and click on it, will show you that most of the money you’re giving to Trump is automatically set up to go to Stefanik.

A $250 donation to the “OFFICIAL TRUMP DEFENSE FUND,” for example, breaks down to $247.50 for Stefanik and $2.50 for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee.

A $500 donation translates to $495 for Stefanik and $5 for Trump.

A $3,300 donation breaks down to $3,267 for Stefanik and $33 for Trump.

You can edit these allocations, of course. But you have to be paying attention to that little sentence in the first place, and to the fact that you can edit the preset allocations.

A $3,300 donation to the so-called Official Trump Defense Fund breaks down to $3,267 for Elise Stefanik and $33 for Trump.

A Stefanik spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on why she is raising money off of Trump’s indictment, or why she is raising money for a so-called official defense fund for Trump when most of that money is set to go directly to her campaign.

There is slime and there is slime!

Tony

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