Trump campaign spams foreign officials' inboxes with fundraising pitches
The billionaire-turned-politician who has been so outspoken about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails is now drawing criticism for his own.
Since Donald Trump sent his first official fundraising email last week, political leaders and lawmakers from the U.K., Iceland, and Australia have come out to say their inboxes are overflowing with Trump emails requesting donations, and they're not happy about it.
"Quite why you think it is appropriate to write emails to UK parliamentarians with a begging bowl for your father's repugnant campaign is completely beyond me," Scottish MP Natalie McGaraff wrote in a reactionary email to Trump's son, Donald Trump, Jr. "Given his rhetoric on migrants, refugees and immigration, it seems quite extraordinary that he would be asking for money, especially people who view his dangerous divisiveness with horror."
But, it's not just the morality of the emails that's under scrutiny. Current U.S. law bars candidates from soliciting donations from foreign nationals, leading two watchdog groups--the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21--to file separate complaints with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.
"Donald Trump should have known better," Paul S. Ryan, the deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement. "It is a no-brainer that it violates the law to send fundraising emails to members of a foreign government on their official government email accounts, and yet, that's exactly what Trump has done repeatedly."
According to one of the complaints, the email spamming started last Wednesday, "the day before Britons voted to leave the E.U. in a historic referendum--and just before Trump arrived in the Scottish Lowlands to promote his golf resort and praise the Brexit vote."
Tweets posted by members of parliament illustrated the reach of Trump's fundraising emails:
@joshtpm @PatrickRuffini pic.twitter.com/wpV348Hws7
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) June 29, 2016
@jensschott @joshtpm yes pic.twitter.com/2CJ6MO8hMx
— Ida Auken (@IdaAuken) June 29, 2016
Rec'd a fundraising email from Trump campaign! Says it is their first. Aside from fact I am Cdn, clearly they don't follow me on Twitter!1/2
— Kim Campbell (@AKimCampbell) June 21, 2016
The Trump campaign has been playing catch up on fundraising -- there was a sizable difference in cash on hand between Trump and Clinton as the general election unofficially began. At the start of June, campaign finance records showed that Trump had raised a meager $1.3 million in comparison to Hillary Clinton's $42 million. Trump self-funded his primary campaign, so he lacked the kind of fundraising infrastructure Clinton has had in place for well over a year already. He recently agreed to a joint fundraising venture with the Republican National Committee.
At a campaign rally in Maine on Wednesday, Donald Trump was disdainful of both traditional fundraising and the ads paid for by that fundraising.
"First of all, I don't even know why I need so much money," he proclaimed. "You know, I go around, I make speeches. I talk to reporters. I don't even need commercials, if you want to know the truth. Why do I need these commercials?"