The thing about rich guys running for president is that they typically say they’ll do it with their own money. It just wouldn’t be prudent to take money from the average Joe Schmoe, particularly when those rich guys running for president are doing so under the auspices of being the friend of the every-man. Past rich boy candidates like Mitt Romney, Ross Perot, and Steve Forbes all ran on their own dime, or at least, they said they did. They were already independently rich with more money than they could ever spend in a lifetime, why would they ask Ma and Pa Kettle to shell out $20 to help them be president, when they could easily pay for the endeavor with their own money coupled with the party’s/larger donors.
Ross Perot ran for president using his own money. He was a serious contender, and one that some say spoiled Bush’s attempt at a second term. The key here is that Ross didn’t start a massive fundraising campaign, he just started a presidential campaign. He spent $12.3 million 1992 dollars to do so.
Since that time in 1992, fundraising has only become more important to the presidential election process. When a candidate is a career politician, in theory, working for the benefit of the people rather than for their own, it is excusable for them to need to raise money to run for office when confronted with the actual numbers of what it takes to be a legitimate candidate: a Bezos or a Gates could, in theory buy an election outright, if it really is just all about money.
But it’s not just about money. It’s also about making people fall in love, on the left, and making them physically vote on the right. The left falls in love the right falls in line, so the thinking goes. So when people fell in love with Obama on the left, it was natural that they’d also want to send off their hard earned dollars to help him in his endeavor to become a senator, and then a president. That’s the nature of his appeal: if you fall in love, you try to help spread the love, mostly through donations.
Here’s the thing I’m trying to get at, though: Donald Trump is having it both ways. To hear him tell it, he’s rich. He could easily fund his own election efforts, fly himself around in his private jet, pay for the $500,000 a night hotel and security reservations for his rallies. He could do this out of pocket. he’s rich, right? Why should those hard working American people who have been so put upon by the evil Washington, the evil Left, the Communist, Socialist Nancy Pelosi tax and spend Democrats and their horrific politics of identity that so galls the right, spend their hard earned dollars to help this rich man become president?
Because they’re in love. And Trump knows this. Does he use this love for good, or for personal gain? Why, for personal gain, of course!
I’ve been subscribed to the Trump campaign email list since 2017, and I’ve watched the emails pour in daily, sometimes TWICE A DAY, asking for money. Not one of these emails has done anything else. Even the emails that ask for opinions, which are completely ridiculous BTW, also include an ask for money.
This is from a sitting president, a wildly rich man with a golden toilet in his golden home atop his glass and steel palace in downtown Manhattan. This man, who poops into a bowl that is worth more than 99% of his voters’ houses, is asking them for more money. And he has been doing it since the election doors closed in 2016. He has used his position to elevate his calls for funds. And, might I also remind the reader here that the funds he is demanding from his voters are not even tax deductible half the time! They’re just asking for people to send in free money!
OK, so it’s really shitty that this Billionaire is asking poor people, who are obviously having a tough financial time in their lives, or they wouldn’t have voted for him, for their money to help him stay rich. But he’s ALSO doing so in a very sneaky and marketingy way.
He’s not emailing every day with things like “Please help President Trump Lower Taxes,” though those emails do exist. The vast majority of his emails are, instead, built around the presumption that a member of the actual Trump family is emailing YOU personally. They come from senders like “Eric Trump” with subject lines like “My Father Is Asking About You.” Those emails amount to “Why haven’t you contributed money to put your name on the donor wall?” He sure likes walls.
All I am saying here is that if Donald Trump was President for any reason other than to enrich himself, he’d be emailing his followers less, and with more truthful stuff. Maybe just info about his events, his policies, or even maybe the occasional rant to get back at the news! But, nope. These emails are all “Democrats Versus America” with 3 short Twitter-like rant bits, and a bald-faced ask for more money.
Here’s a snapshot of my inbox, showing that he does, indeed, email every day, twice some days, and every time it’s about money.
Trump email subject lines 
So basically, we have a president who is super rich, but solicits gifts from the super poor, ostensibly so that he can remain president and continue to ask them for money. My big question is: what’s he going to do if he gets reelected? He can’t continue to do rallies and raise money, can he? Hah! I bet he does.