COMMENTS:
* So much for Trump being self-funding. Documents submitted to the Federal Elections Agency scanned by the Washington Post found that most of the money raised for Trump in July went to pay off the loans he made to his campaign in the past year. Somehow we need a stronger word to describe his core supporters than suckers.
* Great, now Hillary can use that against him when he starts complaining about her Super Pac money. One more argument he nullified. It takes a huge amount of money to win a Presidential campaign, we all know it and it cannot be done without Super Pacs in this day and age unless the laws make it a level playing field. Since the SCOTUS Citizen's United came down, the playing field is unbalanced. The person raising the biggest money has the better chance. The sooner Citizens United is struck down, the sooner the country can have a level playing field. Everyone has the same chance. If that is not to be, then may the best woman win.
* First he was not in debt to anyone because he was "funding" his own campaign. He was not like other politicians who read from teleprompters. He would not give illegal immigrants amnesty. Now, his campaign accepts contributions and he reads from teleprompters and he left open the possibility of amnesty. But it's Hillary that the GOP can't trust.
* I smell burning pants again.
* How many pairs has he burned at this point?
* I wonder how much profit he is making flying his own plane? Costs $5000.00 bill his supporters 100,000.00. And he calls Hillary a crook.
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Donald Trump’s Latest Hire Shows He’s No Different Than His Old Republican Foes
The head of Citizens United joins Trump’s campaign from a pro-Trump super PAC.
By Paul Blumenthal, September 2, 2016Donald Trump once denounced his Republican primary opponents as being “totally in cahoots” with the unlimited-money super PACs supporting their campaigns. But that was then, and this is now. This week, Trump announced he hired the man whose activism literally led to the creation of super PACs, and whose most recent gig was leading a pro-Trump super PAC.
That man is David Bossie. The longtime head of the conservative nonprofit Citizens United is now Trump’s deputy campaign manager. Yes, that Citizens United.
The conservative nonprofit group filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the Federal Election Commission. The case eventually snowballed into a 2010 Supreme Court decision that legalized unlimited corporate and union spending in elections, so long as it remained independent from candidates and political parties. A subsequent lower court decision based entirely on the Citizens United ruling opened the door to unlimited giving by wealthy individuals and, in turn, the FEC created super PACs to allow for this money to flow.
Trump was once the candidate who denounced big money and declared his independence from donor influence through his self-financing. Now, he’s schmoozing with big donors and asking for their advice as he prods them for money, while employing supporters of further campaign finance deregulation.
“It does paint Donald Trump’s campaign as not being friendly to campaign finance reform,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the pro-campaign finance reform group Public Citizen.
That may be of little surprise, considering the Republican Party platform calls for the elimination of all campaign contribution limits.
Bossie’s move to the Trump campaign also shows how closely linked the latter is to the super PACs supporting it. Prior to joining the official Trump campaign, Bossie was running a pro-Trump super PAC called Make America Number 1.
The Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United decision that corporations, unions and, ultimately, wealthy individuals could spend unlimited sums on elections so long as they remained independent from candidates and political parties. The FEC has imposed some restrictions on coordination, including a 120-day revolving door cooling off period for staffers moving from a campaign to a super PAC. There is no restriction, however, on staff moving from a super PAC to a campaign.
While there is no legal problem with Bossie moving from the super PAC to the campaign, Paul S. Ryan, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a pro-campaign finance reform watchdog group, called it “another example of how weak the anti-coordination laws are.”
Holman said, “The FEC has fallen flat on its face on setting rules to implement this law. The rule they’ve put in place comes nowhere close to addressing this situation.”
Trump’s campaign has also had a staffer move from the campaign to another pro-Trump super PAC ― Rebuilding America Now ― within the 120-day revolving door window. Ken McKay was a senior adviser to the Trump campaign until June, when he signed up with the super PAC. The potential revolving door rule violation was reported by MapLight.org.
Despite Trump’s past protestations about his freedom from donor influence, Bossie’s hire from Make America Number 1 provides further evidence of the footprint one donor has on the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign.
The sole funder of Make America Number 1 is hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer. The former supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid switched his support to Trump following Trump’s primary win. Those in the wealthy donor’s orbit have since gone on to take over the Trump campaign.
Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is a longtime adviser to Mercer who previously ran a Mercer-funded pro-Cruz super PAC. Campaign Chief Executive Steven Bannon came directly from the far-right news site Breitbart, which receives significant funding from Mercer.
Bossie’s Make America Number 1 was funded with $2 million from Mercer.
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