One of the telemarketers behind the calls, who spoke to a POLITICO reporter on Wednesday, promised that “100 percent of the contributions go directly to President Trump.”
But the calls are not made by Trump’s Save America action committee. In fact, it is not entirely clear who is behind them. According to the telemarketers, they are volunteers working for the campaign to support Republican leaders, who are not registered with the Federal Electoral Commission and have no online presence.
One telemarketer said he called from the 33rd floor of an Dallas office – a building that is home to a WeWork office connected to a man named Matthew Tunstall.
Tunstall is the treasurer of the Support American Leaders PAC, which names his address as the same Dallas WeWork office on the forms of the Federal Electoral Commission. Another telemarketer on the recent robocalls identified the group behind it as the campaign to support the president. This group also mentions Tunstall as its treasurer on FEC forms.
In a POLITICO survey in 2019, Support American Leaders PAC was identified as one of more than a dozen pro-Trump PACs with no actual ties to Trump. Such PACs, sometimes known as scam PACs, have plagued Republicans – and to a lesser extent Democrats – for years. They were so persistent in defeating donors for cash under debt that it went to Trump’s campaign, that the actual campaign was forced to deny them.
“There is nothing we can do to stop them,” Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for the Trump-backed America First super PAC, told POLITICO at the time. “This is a problem for the campaign, both for us and for the RNC.”
Tunstall did not return a request for comment. Neither does a Trump assistant. But the persistence of Trump-related robocalls underscores how valuable his name remains in political fundraising nearly two months after he left office.
Trump has tried to ensure that he is the only one who can use his name to raise money. His team recently sent letters of resignation to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and other groups demanding that they immediately stop and refrain from the unauthorized use of President Donald J. Trump’s name, image . and / or parable in all fundraising, persuasion and / or speech. ”
Justin Riemer, the main board of the RNC, responded in a letter to Trump’s lawyer on Monday that the group has the full right to refer to public figures such as Trump in his fundraising recruitments. The former president has since resigned from the threat he issued.
In less than two months after Trump’s allies started it, Save America raised more than $ 31 million. Trump is also reportedly planning to add a super PAC to his post-presidential operation.
Support American Leaders PAC, on the other hand, raised nearly $ 2.5 million during the 2020 cycle. Less than $ 375,000 was spent on advertising and contacting voters who support Trump, and none of that went to Trump’s campaign.
Back in 2019, a CNN investigation uncovered a series of mysterious robo calls claiming they would raise money for Trump’s wall to support US leaders’ PAC. These calls use a recording of Trump’s voice to give the impression that the then president was behind their efforts.
The current crop of robocalls also uses a Trump voice recording. But because they can no longer ask the recipients to support the Trump agenda, they have shifted the focus to protecting it.
“Stand with President Trump’s legacy agenda and stop Joe Biden from banning assault rifles and stopping the construction of the wall,” one robocall went before recipients offered a “free 2021 U.S. sticker” as an enticement for their donation.