Longtime political analyst and writer, Joe Conason, accused Donald Trump of stealing millions from his MAGA fans for an election integrity project that never materialized. Conason recently appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to promote his new book , The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism . The work, as described by him, details the descent of conservatives into the current state of affairs, where they deceive their supporters for financial gain.
As reported by Raw Story , Conason explained, “The epitome of this, of course, is the former president, who booked a quarter of a billion dollars after the 2020 election by telling people he was going to set up an official election defense fund. And, of course, the money didn’t go to that, but they pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars in two months after the election…It ended up in a super PAC that he controls and that he can spend on anything, including, of course, his legal defense, not election defense.”
There was no “Election Defense Fund.” Donald Trump made $250 million on keeping a fraudulent conspiracy theory alive. It wasn’t just a Big Lie. It was also a big rip-off. pic.twitter.com/ENu9mPOkEV
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 14, 2022
He added, “But this is a syndrome, a problem on the right that a lot of conservatives have discussed. You know the foreword to the book is by my friend George Conway, who I think you guys know, he is an honest conservative. Like many honest conservatives, is appalled by the dishonesty, the grifting, the scamming that is just rampant in their movement now.”
@SpeakerJohnson Donald Trump’s whole movement is to fleece his followers out of money. Not only is he taking money for himself out of the election defense fund, he pardoned Steve Bannon for stealing money from the wall fund. Stop sending him your hard working money. It’s a con.
— Classic rules !! (@Retiredwth78Vet) July 8, 2024
Conway, a well-known Republican who has been critical of the former president, recently asserted that the GOP, led by Trump, is ‘addicted to lies’. He was reacting to Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent comments on Trump’s ‘respect’ for a peaceful handover of power. As reported by The Hill , Conway told CNN’s Laura Coates, “It is really apt even to this because the Republican Party has become addicted to lies under Trump, and this is just an example. In light of that, it’s just impossible to say that Donald Trump — with any honesty — to say that Donald Trump supports the Constitution. It’s impossible to say that, and Speaker Johnson manages to do that. And he does that because the Republicans just lie casually now and that’s just become a way of life for the Republican Party.”
According to The Guardian , Conason reiterated Trump’s ‘stealing with both hands’ nature. He told the outlet, “Trump is the apotheosis of this moral degeneration of conservatism because he’s out there stealing with both hands and it’s right in your face. Nixon said, ‘I am not a crook.’ Could Trump really say ‘I’m not a crook’ and have anyone believe him? Nobody would believe that, including his followers. They know that he’s out to scam money for himself, and they don’t seem to mind.”
Donald Trump, a billionaire, is sending out a dozen emails/day asking his supporters to pay for his “election defense fund” A defense he could easily fund on his own if he thought for a single second that he had any sort of case One final grift – against his own supporters
— Joe Whalen (@joewhalen) November 22, 2020
The true problem, according to Conason, is not the amount, but rather the individuals who back them. He stated, “Take the grifting around ‘stop the steal’, post-election, 2020-21. Led by Trump’s son-in-law [ Jared Kushner ], they knew they were going to do it before the election was even over. ‘We’re going to keep our fundraising operation intact.’ And they booked a quarter of a billion dollars in a couple of months. It was amazing. One of the biggest rip-offs ever.”
