Trump Begging For Campaign Donations By Personally Promising Rich Megadonors Tax Cuts
Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP.
Former President Donald Trump’s fundraising pitch to GOP megadonors has become more and more explicit in recent months, according to various reports highlighting Trump directly promising favorable policies in return for cash.
The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey reported on Monday that when Trump met with top donors in a swanky New York hotel earlier in May he made clear that unless they increase their donations significantly he would not be “very happy” and their taxes would be going up.
Dawsey reported that Trump “told the group that a businessman had recently offered $1 million to his presidential effort and wanted to have lunch.”
“I’m not having lunch,” Trump reportedly replied to the businessmen, adding, “You’ve got to make it $25 million.” Dawsey added:
Another businessman, he said, had traditionally given $2 million to $3 million to Republicans. Instead, he said he told the donor that he wanted a $25 million or $50 million contribution or he would not be “very happy.”
As he closed his pitch at the Pierre Hotel, Trump explained to the group why it was in their interest to cut large checks. If he was not put back in office, taxes would go up for them under President Biden, who vows to let Trump-era tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations expire at the end of 2025.
“The tax cuts all expire for wealthy and poor and middle-income and everything else, but they expire in another seven months and he’s not going to renew them, which means taxes are going to go up by four times,” Trump reportedly said.
“You’re going to have the biggest tax increase in history. So whatever you guys can do, I appreciate it,” concluded the former president who has been trailing Biden in fundraising throughout the 2024 campaign.
Earlier in May, the Post also reported that Trump huddled with executives from many of the country’s largest oil companies and told them they need to donate $1 billion to his campaign. In exchange for the massive donation, Trump promised to make sure they got whatever environmental regulations that required from the government to maximize their businesses.
“Trump’s offer of a blatant quid pro quo to oil executives is practically an invitation to ask questions about Big Oil’s political corruption and manipulation,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) later said in a statement as he raised the prospect of a Senate investigation into the meeting. House Democrats have asked the oil executives at the meeting to detail in written statements specifically what Trump offered them.
