Donald Trump's team wants
Republican candidates
to give them a cut
of their fundraising cash.
The campaign is telling candidates
and committees
that if they use the former
president's name, image
and likeness to fundraise,
they should give at least 5% of what
they get to Donald Trump.
CNN's Steve
King Tourneau is joining me now.
Basically,
you use the name, you pay for it.
Exactly, Sarah.
There was a letter that was sent dated
April 15th from the top officials
in Trump's campaign saying, look,
if you're going to use Trump's
name, likeness and image,
then we should get a chunk of that money
that you raise using Trump's image.
And they suggested at least 5%.
And I say
at least 5%,
because there is this interesting line
in the letter that they sent.
And let me read it for you now.
It says any split that is higher than 5%
will be seen favorably
by the Republican National Committee
and Trump. President Trump's campaign.
And that information is
routinely reported
to the highest levels of leadership
within both organizations.
The implication being
if you give a little bit
more than 5%,
maybe the former president
will even know about it.
And maybe the top level of the RNC
will know about it.
So clearly
trying to encourage people
to give even more.
And look,
the RNC is saying we need to do this
because there are people
who are putting Trump's name
claiming endorsements,
putting pictures of him,
of their candidates
with family members
starting Trump memberships.
This can be confusing for donors
who think that they might be giving
to a Trump backed candidate
or maybe even Trump themselves.
And so they want to eliminate
any confusion there.
But obviously,
this is coming at a time
where Trump is in a tight race
with President Biden
in, you know,
and in a fundraising cash crunch.
He is trailing
Biden's campaign
and the DNC in that
in the fundraising push.
And this is another effort
to get some more money
into their campaign coffers
for these next five months.
It'll be curious
to see how this is
responded to by candidates.
Steve Cantor now, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Okay.
Joining us now is Republican
strategist Rita Shore
and Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis.
Guys, let's start here.
I mean,
what do you think of this
ask of down ballot candidates?
I mean, down ballot candidates,
they need all the cash they can get.
I mean,
would you advise any of
them to go along with this?
Absolutely not.
I would tell them to fight back.
I mean, this is not just unconventional.
It's not just a business deal.
It is almost Mafioso like.
And I think, of course,
this just tracks with who Trump is.
He treats politics
just like a mob boss would in many ways.
And so, if anything,
this isn't like a show of,
hey, you know, this could be party unity.
Give us a little here.
This is putting a little bit
too much pressure on candidates
who frankly need that money
for their own races.
We all know the RNC is not coming
to help any more.
They haven't got as much cash.
So why are you trying
to steal from the little guy
again, Trump?
I mean, it is I,
I giggle a little bit, Chris.
It was just like talk
about unconventional
in the top of unconventional.
I saw on the political reporting and
and Steve was talking about this, too.
The Trump officials are insisting that
the purpose of the 5% split
is not to raise money for themselves,
but to dissuade scammers
from using Trump's brand
without permission.
I mean, what do you think?
Maybe novel fundraising strategy or
something more desperate?
I don't know if it's desperate.
I mean, it could be.
I mean,
I think there's a couple of things.
Clearly, he's got a money problem.
They're going to he's
going to lose the money race.
I think that is already clear.
I think the other part to it
that I think is
maybe the more kind
of controlling aspect of this.
I think the Trump campaign wants to know
who's using his likeness and who isn't.
But for a particular reason,
essentially who's on his team
and who isn't.
And so if you think about this
in terms of the entire country,
especially in those key battlegrounds,
you can almost
you can almost kind of reverse engineer
or right in some of the key races
who's like leaning into Trump,
who's running away,
and that could help shape their strategy.
So I think it's bigger than just money
because I think
unless they're completely delusional,
they know
they're going to lose the money race.
I think this is more
about political control
and campaign control.
That almost feels like too many back
flips to get there.
Why don't you just ask the campaigns,
are you with us?
How are you going to separate yourself
from us regardless?
I don't run campaigns.