Letter to the editor: Trump's grift

Former President Donald Trump and his conspiracy clown car of mostly criminal associates are the epitome of what happens when gullibility and fear meet greed and power.

Between Election Day 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, Trump raised from small donors $250 million for an election defense fund that lawmakers say never existed. So where did all that money go? Maybe to Trump himself as tax-free cash, with the rest doled out to Trump hangers-on? Donald Trump Jr.’s fiance was paid $60,000 for a 2½-minute speech. How corrupt is that?

Trump himself shelled out millions of his supporters’ money to pay for his Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse that morphed into the deadly assault on the Capitol that was led by misogynist white supremacists like the Proud Boys and their violent ilk.

Every word of this is documented fact, yet you can’t sell any of the truth to Trump’s fan base. Someday perhaps the right-wing public may figure out that the man they put before God and country flat-out lied about his election loss just so he could keep the donations pouring in from his supporters. It all appears to be a shakedown and a grift and could lead to a felony charge of wire fraud.

Even Trump must know that he can’t keep bilking his minions with nothing but vengeful, divisive lies.

Jim Harger

New Kensington