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America First Audit

He said it in public. These are the documents on what happened next. Browse all records.

Why these cases

Trump sold “America First.” This record traces how public money, power, and risk moved toward family businesses, donors, favored firms, and foreign governments: and what workers, ranchers, retirees, patients, veterans, and small investors were left to absorb.

Said vs. done

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Case 140 of 254

Election-Defense Solicitations and Recurring Donations

Actions
documentedThe committee found that no election-defense fund existed as described and that allocation language routed much of the money to Save America and other political committees.U.S. House of RepresentativesRead record · 1 source
Outcomes
reportedAn analysis of FEC records reported $122.7 million in Trump campaign refunds during 2020 after recurring-payment complaints.ForbesForbesRead record · 1 source
People and impacts
Who gained
The House committee reported that the campaign and Republican allies raised approximately $250 million after the election, with allocations to Save America and other political committees.Open cited record
Who paid or was affected
  • Trump political donors
  • Trump political donors
  • Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

Amounts and affected parties

  1. paymentPost Election Fundraisingabout $250 million raised after the election
    Paid by / source
    Post-election donors
    Received by
    Trump campaign, Save America, and allied Republican committees
    realized · 2022-12-22 · observedRead source record
    Calculation detailsPopulation Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; Save America; Save America; Republican National CommitteePeriod 2020-11-04 to 2021-01-06Basis Use the rounded total in the January 6 committee report.Limits Includes contributions to multiple committees under allocation terms; do not combine with the overlapping refund total.
  2. payment2020 Refunds$122.7 million refunded
    Paid by / source
    Trump campaign and WinRed
    Received by
    2020 donors receiving refunds
    realized · 2021-04-03 · observedRead source record
    Calculation detailsPopulation Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Trump political donors; Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; Save America; Save America; Republican National CommitteePeriod 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31Basis Use the FEC-record analysis reported by Forbes; do not infer every refund resulted from recurring defaults.Limits Overlaps the post-election period and includes refunds for potentially different reasons.
Promise and assessment
The promise
documentedTrump campaign solicitations told donors their money would support an Official Election Defense Fund.U.S. House of RepresentativesRead record · 1 source

Promise contradicted

Where the money went, and how the interface was built, contradicted the message the solicitations led with. The post-election $250 million and full-year $122.7 million refund totals overlap in time and measure different things, so they are never added.

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