GoFundMe brushes off boycott calls over Trump fundraiser as fans try to help ex-prez foot legal bills: ‘Don’t see a problem’
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Crowdsourcing platform GoFundMe is standing up to pressure from the left to halt a fundraiser meant to help pay former President Donald Trump’s penalties from last week’s New York civil fraud ruling.
A myriad of netizens seethed and called for a boycott until GoFundMe nixed the fundraising campaign, which had raised more than $965,000 as of Thursday afternoon, but so far the company is declining to do so.
“This fundraiser is currently within our terms of service,” GoFundMe director of public affairs Jalen Drummond told The Post. Drummond previously worked as a White House assistant press secretary under Trump.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and current manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative, told The Post the he saw no legal problems or violation of federal campaign finance laws with the fundraising campaign set up by Florida woman Elena Cardone.
“This GoFundMe campaign can’t be considered campaign contributions to Donald Trump because it’s paying legal expenses that would exist irrespective of the campaign,” he said. “Remember all of the prosecutors in these cases are saying, ‘Oh, these cases have absolutely nothing to do with his candidacy,’ right?”
“If they used it for some kind of campaign expense, yeah, that would be a problem. But if they stick to just paying these legal costs, I don’t see a problem.”
Cardone is the wife of private equity fund manager Grant Cardone.
“I stand unwaveringly with President Donald Trump in the face of what I see as unprecedented and unfair treatment by certain judicial elements in New York,” she wrote on the fundraiser’s webpage.
“The recent legal battles he faces are not just an attack on him, but an attack on the very ideals of fairness and due process that every American deserves.”
The fundraiser was set up on the heels of a devastating decision in the civil fraud case against Trump, in which he was ordered to pony up $355 million in addition to interest, which could spike the cost past $450 million.
Reps for the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cardone’s GoFundMe was mocked by social media critics, some of whom demanded the site be taken down.
“How many Billionaires do you know that have @gofundme accounts to pay their legal expenses? #BoycottGoFundMe,” self-described multimedia journalist David Leavitt wrote on X.
“I want everyone to #BoycottGoFundMe Do you agree they should be investigated for possible tax and campaign fraud? Not all contributions to Trump fines are public and it could be used to evade tax/campaign laws,” user My2Cents wrote.
“Again, the Go Fund Me to raise money to pay for trump’s fraud settlement is being run by the wife of a 2X billionaire who could easily write a check for the whole amount himself without even feeling it. Think about that before you go selling your trailers, MAGA. #BoycottGoFundMe,” user Scary Larry wrote.
Some users fought back against the boycott effort.
“I’m tired of all the boycotts and cancel culture. Stop calling for people to #BoycottGoFundMe merely because they are allowing a campaign to exist which you don’t like,” so-called “Resistance” figure Brian Krassenstein vented.
“Stop also trying to boycott New York because a judge independently decided that Trump should be fined for fraud.”
“#BoycottGoFundMe Whining liberals again. I love it. I don’t usually do this; but I think I’ll go there just to donate,” Dwight Brocious wrote on X.
Trump’s net worth hovers around $2.6 billion and he has over $640 million worth of liquid assets, Forbes estimated last year.
The former president has long disputed those estimates and insisted that his personal fortune is actually much larger.
In addition to the penalty, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron barred Trump from leading business in the Empire State for three years.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again,” Engoron wrote in his ruling, referring to Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and other company officials.
“This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson,” he continued. “Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”
Trump is expected to challenge that decision, which comes weeks after he was slapped with $83.3 million in damages from advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case.
In response to a question about the backlash GoFundMe has weathered, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Post, “Liberals and [Republican presidential candidate] Nikki Haley love to cry about everything.”
Trump is staring down the barrel of 91 criminal counts across four indictments. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Last year, he dipped into $48 million from Super PACs to help pay his legal expenses, according to an analysis from the Wall Street Journal last month.
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