Donald Trump issued an unorthodox Easter message Sunday resembling a tweet – in which the former president attacked his Democrat enemies.
‘Happy Easter to ALL, including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election, and want to destroy our country!’ Mr Trump wrote in the statement, which was released by his Save America PAC.
This was the second ‘Happy Easter’ statement Mr Trump has released, with a longer one put out on Friday which also contained scant evidence of Christian goodwill.
Donald Trump during Easter 2019 at the White House (left) and the statement he released today (right)
‘Why is it that every time the 2020 ELECTION FRAUD is discussed, the Fake News Media consistently states that such charges are baseless, unfounded, and unwarranted, etc.?’ Mr Trump wrote in that message.
‘With each passing day, and unfortunately for the Radical Left CRAZIES, more and more facts are coming out.’ Mr Trump – who was banned from Twitter after the storming of the Capitol by his supporters – added, ‘Other than that, Happy Easter!’
There is no credible evidence of widespread fraud in the general election.
By contrast, former President Barack Obama’s Easter message was more conventional, with the Democrat tweeting: ‘This Easter, I hope we can all take some time to reflect on the blessings we enjoy and the hope we have for a brighter future.
‘From our family to yours, have a safe and happy Easter.’
Reacting to Mr Trump’s statement, New York Times journalist Kenneth Vogel quipped: ‘Jesus couldn’t have said it any better himself.’
Meanwhile, former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye added: ‘The #Easter Bunny must have skipped his house. That’s what happens when you steal from your own supporters.’
The was a reference to Mr Trump being forced to pay back $122 million in donations after supporters were tricked into making recurring payments to his 2020 campaign.
A NYT investigation found Trump’s fundraising campaign employed deceptive fundraising tactics that saw thousands of his supporters unwittingly sign up to give repeat contributions, when they had only intended to make a one-off payment.
This was the second ‘Happy Easter’ statement Mr Trump (seen golfing Saturday) has released, with a longer one put out on Friday which also contained scant evidence of Christian goodwill
The ‘scam’, which involves pre-ticked boxes on fundraising emails often buried under lines of fine print, sparked thousands of complaints to banks and credit card companies.
Among the victims were elderly and military veterans, as well as some experienced political operatives, and many have been left with overdraft fees and busted credit card limits.
Complaints from donors prompted the Trump campaign to eventually reimburse $122 million in contributions.
It came as Mr Trump was spotted at Mar-a-Lago with wife Melania and son Barron in the family’s first appearance together since he left office.
Video posted to Instagram on Friday shows the Trump family strolling through an outdoor dining area at the club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the former president has made his home after leaving the Oval Office.
‘Mr. President!’ one supporter is heard to shout, as the club members cheer and applaud, some rising to their feet.
Barron, 15, was noticeably absent from Trump’s farewell address on his final day in office, and Melania has been vocal in her protection of the young teen from public scrutiny.
While Trump has frequently been spotted golfing since leaving office, including on Saturday, Barron has not been in the public eye for several months.
In December, Melania reportedly toured private prep schools in Florida, seeking the right fit for Barron to continue his education.
Last month, she posted a birthday message on Twitter celebrating Barron’s 15th birthday, showing a photo of balloon numbers with his age.
Reacting to Mr Trump’s statement, New York Times journalist Kenneth Vogel quipped: ‘Jesus couldn’t have said it any better himself.’ Mike Pence’s former aide, Olivia Troye, also reacted to it
By contrast, former President Barack Obama’s Easter message was more conventional
This was the second ‘Happy Easter’ statement Mr Trump has released, with a longer one put out on Friday which also contained scant evidence of Christian goodwill
It comes after Trump expanded the list of companies he is calling on his supporters to boycott over their opposition to a new Georgia law placing tougher restrictions on absentee voting.
‘For years the Radical Left Democrats have played dirty by boycotting products when anything from that company is done or stated in any way that offends them,’ Trump said in a statement on Saturday. ‘We can play the game better than them.’
It came after Trump called for boycotts of MLB, Coca-Cola and Delta over the companies’ stances against Georgia’s new voting law, which President Joe Biden has called ‘Jim Crow on steroids.’
Now Trump is calling for boycotts of JP Morgan, ViacomCBS, Cisco, UPS and Merck, all of which have signaled opposition to the new Georgia law to some extent.
It came as Mr Trump was spotted at Mar-a-Lago with wife Melania and son Barron in the family’s first appearance together since he left office
Mr Trump is under pressure as further details emerge of supporters who were tricked into making recurring donations to his campaign.
One victim, Stacy Blatt, was battling cancer and living in a hospice in Kansas City when he donated $500 last September, the New York Times reported.
Blatt was charged another $500 the next day, and then $500 each week until October, and it was only after his rent and utility bills bounced that his family discovered what had happened.
‘It felt like it was a scam,’ his brother Russell, who helped Stacy get to the bottom of what had happened, told the Times. Blatt died in February.
The Trump campaigns dubious pre-checked emails first appeared in March 2020.
A bright yellow box began appearing in emails with the words: ‘Make this a monthly recurring donation.’
Pre-checked boxes, like the ones above, began appearing in Trump campaign emails in March 2020. In June, the emails included a second pre-checked box – known as a ‘money bomb’ – which duped thousands of donors into making recurring payments. When the campaign learned it had been out-fundraised by Biden’s team by $150 million in a single month, it began adding lines of bolded, capitalized text
Anyone making a donation would have to opt-out to avoid being charged repeatedly.
Three months later in June, a second pre-checked box was added to Trump campaign fundraising emails.
Known as a ‘money bomb’, the second box had a much greater degree of success in ensnaring unsuspecting donors to sign up, as most thought unticking one box would avoid any additional charges.
Stacy Blatt, 63, was battling cancer in a hospice in Kansas City when he donated $500 to Trump’s campaign in September. He would end up being charged $3000
Then in September, after learning he had been out-raised by his opponent, the Democratic nominee Joseph Biden, by $150 million in one month, the Trump campaign became more aggressive, The Times reported.
The recurring donation would now be taken out every week, instead of monthly.
And the campaign later added large blocks of bold, capitalized text to the boxes to make them harder to decipher.
Soon after Election Day, banks and credit card companies became inundated with complaints.
‘It started to go absolutely wild,’ a Wells Fargo fraud investigator told the New York Times.
In all, Trump has had to pay back $122 million in donations made to five organizations: Donald J. Trump for President, Trump Victory, Trump Make America Great Again Committee, Save America, and the Republican National Committee.
Another reason Trump had to refund such large amounts of money was because many of his individual donors exceeded the legally-allowed cap of $2,800.
This dwarfed the $21m refunded to donors by the Biden campaign.
A Trump spokesman said that less than 1 percent of donations to his campaign were subject to complaints
All of the donations were made via the Republican-linked for-profit donation-processing company WinRed, which charges 30 cents of every donation, plus 3.8 percent of the amount given.
Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told the New York Times the scheme was ‘unfair’, ‘unethical’ and ‘inappropriate.’
A Trump spokesman, Jason Miller, pointed to internal campaign records which showed less than 1 percent of total donations to WinRed had been subjected to complaints.
‘Our campaign was built by the hardworking men and women of America and cherishing their investments was paramount to anything else we did,’ Miller told The Times.
