Fox News’ Juan Williams Takes a Blowtorch to Trump’s ‘Grift Game’: A GOP ‘Scam’

Fox News’ Juan Williams is warning conservatives that the Republican Party boils down to a “giant scam” under former President Donald Trump.

The left-leaning Fox News analyst wrote a column for The Hill that dissects how Trump remains a financial juggernaut for the GOP, even though he’s been kicked off of social media and keeps spreading the election lies that fueled his supporters into storming the U.S. Capitol. He also wrote of how Trump’s efforts have been replicated by “shameless imitators,” naming conservative bomb-throwers like Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).

“Trump’s grifting game is also being mimicked by powerful, well-funded conservative donor networks,” Williams writes. “They tell donors they need money to uncover voter fraud. And when they fail to find any fraud, these dark-money organizations then tell donors they need more cash for more probes in search of fraud. They never find any and so they ask again. It is a never-ending pitch.”

From there, Williams continues by explaining that the “Trump grift game” works with right-wing media figures going on tireless, factually questionable rants against “socialism” and “cancel culture.” This sustains a cash flow from an “angry, paranoid audience” hoping to stave off “a purported invasion of younger, more educated, racially diverse people likely to vote for Democrats.”

The op-ed concludes with Williams noting that several corporations stopped donating to Republicans amid the fallout from January 6th. Now, however, he says they are indirectly funneling money to the GOP through PACs because they’re worried about their shrinking political influence. This is because of all the small donors who’ve bought into Trump’s lies and are keeping Republicans financially energized.

Trump’s fundraising haul exceeded the sums raised by his party’s House and Senate campaign groups. As an individual, he was basically on pace with the Republican National Committee. The old saying in Washington about campaign finance used to be “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” Trump is calling the tune for a frightening game of grifting that has robbed the GOP of its principles. Where is the Republican willing to call out this scam?

Reports on Trump’s personal 2021 fundraising numbers indicate that the money flow has decreased recently and that most of it came from a questionable system of recurring donations. Most recently, The New York Times reported that Trump and the GOP refunded $135 million in donations that were accumulated through these recurring systems.

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