Convicted Felon Trump Is Fundraising off His Hush-Money Sentence
Immediately after Donald Trump was finally sentenced in his hush-money case, the president-elect decided to try and make some money off it.
On Friday morning, after Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge, a sentence without imprisonment, fines, or probation, the president-elect fired off a fundraising email to supporters asking them to “stand with him.”
“They’re trying to sabotage the Presidential Transition process. They’re trying to END the presidency as we know it—just before I take office,” Trump wrote. “But together, we will put a stop to the LAWFARE and make our country GREAT once again.”
The email linked to a website with the message “After my RIGGED SENTENCING, do you still Stand with Trump? RESPOND TO TRUMP,” with suggested donations ranging from $10 to $3,300 listed below it.
It’s hard to see how a sentence that carries no real penalties would “end the presidency,” but Trump has repeatedly claimed that the case, which resulted in 34 felony convictions, was rigged against him. The president-elect has not hesitated to use news about him, even negative developments, to solicit money from his supporters, and is not above inciting rage for money.
After he was found guilty in the hush-money case in May, Trump also sent out a fundraising email right away. The president-elect used the July assassination attempt against him to sell grotesque themed merchandise, including gaudy sneakers. He invoked guillotines in a July fundraising email, and even used a Valentine’s Day message to his wife, Melania, to raise money last February.
Trump has never missed an opportunity to grift, and his second term will likely be no different. And now that he has escaped consequences in all of the criminal cases against him, there won’t be any limits on how low he will stoop to make a dollar.