Speaker 1: Are Donald Trump being dishonest and scamming his followers?
Say it ain't so. Donald Trump kept for himself most of the $147 million
that he raised, supposedly for the 2022 midterms. Now, you might ask, why do the same people keep
falling for this stuff over and over again? We will get to that. Huffington Post reports Trump
hoarded most of the 147 million in small donor money he raised for himself just weeks after
touting a new super PAC, writes S.V. The Tally for HuffPost. In the November supposedly to help
Republican candidates in the November midterms. Trump wound up spending just a fraction of the
100 million he had available, and he hoarded the rest for his own 2024 presidential run.
The coup attempting former president in October transferred $60 million from his Save America
Leadership PAC to his Make America Great Again Inc super PAC, which was ostensibly to boost
candidates in tight races. Republican candidates. It collected another 9 million from an existing
pro-Trump super PAC and then 4 million in new contributions. Of that $73 million total, though,
only $15 million went to electing Republicans in just five Senate races, according to a HuffPost
analysis of FEC filings. With not a dime spent helping Herschel Walker in Georgia.
A full $54 million remains available for the Super PACs. New stated goal Helping Trump Win
Back the White House. Remember in late September, Taylor Budda, which, who is now the head of Maga
Inc and was a spokesperson for Trump's PAC, told POLITICO, quote, President Trump is committed to
saving America and make America Great Again. Inc will ensure that is achieved at the ballot box
in November and beyond. He's keeping the money. He's keeping the money. So let's get back to that
interesting question. Why do the same people keep falling for the same stuff over and over again?
It's important to understand cult membership and it's important to understand sort of
victimization. It's crazy that these are the terms we have to think about. One reason
cult members remain part of the cult is they have a strong belief in the group's ideology
that makes them vulnerable to being manipulated or controlled by the cult leader. In this case,
it's Trump. I scammed you once and again and again and again after the 2020 election saying we were
going to overturn it and now I'm scamming you again. It's the same scam because they're loyal
to the ideology. They are predisposed to be manipulated. Oftentimes, cult members have
a strong emotional attachment to the group and to its leaders, and that is absolutely the case with
Donald Trump. That makes it difficult for them to break away and to stop being scammed by the cult
leader. The cult followers also are sometimes isolated from the outside world. In this case,
we might call it isolated from everything other than MAGA Trumpism. That makes it tough for them
to even get other inputs about, Hey, he might be scamming you again. Friends and family try to
tell them you're getting scammed. Stop donating, doesn't happen. They remain vulnerable. So you've
got cult membership. You then also need to look at scam victims. Scam victims are often victimized by
scammers multiple times. It's really common and it fits here as well. Some people seem to just be
more susceptible to scams, either because of their emotional vulnerability, psychological
vulnerability, lack of education, lack of knowledge about scams. Sometimes it's their lonely
and donating to Trump as a way to be part of a group, or they have low self esteem or they
want to be validated. Trump's emails are quite literally exactly those, but we want to put you on
a list of Trump's best and biggest supporters. Oh, wow. That sounds validating. That's interesting.
And then there are some people who are just a little too trusting or naive and they are more
vulnerable to be scammed. So repeat victims of scams, really common cult followers who just never
realize it's a cult, really common. And Trumpists, many of them are that perfect combination of
people predisposed to be scammed and predisposed to falling for a cult leader. I would say a
charismatic cult leader to some degree. Trump is charismatic in ways that I think would appeal to
MAGA. And next thing you know, Trump's raising tens of millions again saying, I'm going to help
20, 22 candidates and he's keeping the money. What will he use it for? Probably to try to help
himself win in 2024. Whether or not that happens is increasingly in question. Make sure that
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