The digital newsletter “I Love My Freedom” regularly blasts out emails hawking flagrant scams and snake oil, such as a dementia-reversing “miracle” treatment, a “diabetes destroyer” substance and a “life-saving” cancer therapy that a Nazi chemist supposedly developed at Hitler’s command. Peppered between these messages sponsored by third-party hucksters are official ads from Donald Trump’s presidential reelection campaign.
For months, members of the president’s inner circle — including Donald Trump Jr., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and even Trump himself — have been issuing calls for donations through the newsletter, which typically goes out five or more times per day. Many recipients were likely unwittingly subscribed; I Love My Freedom, the group that runs the eponymous newsletter, has acquired a growing list of Americans’ contact information through a covert email harvesting scheme involving a web of pro-Trump Facebookpages.
Right-wing politicians, organizations and media outlets have a history of working with shady entities behind the scenes to make money and push their agendas. The Trump campaign’s business with I Love My Freedom is no exception.
By design, its emails look as if they’re sent directly from Trump and his allies, though they’re actually distributed via support@ilovemyfreedom-email.org. At the bottom, they bear disclaimers noting they were paid for by either the National Republican Senatorial Committee, its House counterpart, the McConnell Senate Committee, or the Trump Make America Great Again Committee (which is jointly run by the Republican National Committee and Trump’s reelection campaign).
Renting out access to harvested email lists is a common and highly lucrative practice exercised by conservative and liberal groups alike, often for political fundraising purposes. But things get ethically murky when email distributors don’t vet their sponsors — which can result in email recipients being inundated with ripoffs and hoaxes, like the phony cancer cure. In this case, however, the real question is whether Trump’s team bothered to vet I Love My Freedom.
The campaign did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Arthur Julien
Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/why-is-donald-trump-fundraising-through-this-sketchy-newsletter-133729839.html