Louisiana Voice

Okay, campers, we have a new game we’re going to play with Donald J. Trump.

As you may know, Trump has launched a fund-raising effort, ostensibly exclusively for Trump’s election defense fund and he is inundating people (including yours truly) with 20-30 emails per day begging for donations.

What he doesn’t tell you is that his defense fund receives only the remainder of any donation exceeding the maximum $5,000 allowed under campaign finance rules.

He also doesn’t bother to explain that 60 percent of all post-election donations are earmarked not for his legal fight over the election results, but to pay off his campaign debts.

The fine print on the campaign, according to THE NEW YORK TIMES, website reads:

60% of each contribution first to Save America, up to $5,000/$5,000, then to DJTP’s (Donald J. Trump for President’s) Recount Account, up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000.40% of each contribution to the RNC’s Operating account, up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000. Any additional funds will go to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account, up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000.”

Now, whenever you use your credit card, you are not the only one who pays. In addition to any interest charges that you pay, the merchant, or recipient of the payment, is hit with two separate charges: a percentage of purchase charge and a swipe charge.

It’s the second one, the swipe charge, that is crucial here. Rather than a percentage, it is a flat fee that is charged each time a credit card is swiped, or used, to make a payment. It’s not really important to know what the flat fee is – just that it exists and for the purpose of our new game, it’s a gift from heaven.

If you receive these emails from Trump, just contribute a penny.

Whatever that swipe fee is, it’s certain to result in a deficit transaction for Trump every time it’s used.

I’m suggesting that we go into each and every email and give a penny for each one we receive. Twenty or thirty cents, after all, isn’t going to break any of us and there’s a helluva lot more satisfaction than the contributions will cost us.

I also suggest that you pass this on to your friends in order to get as much participation as possible. I don’t particularly care about helping the credit card companies but any distaste for them will certainly be outweighed by our collective contempt for Trump and by the pleasure of wreaking havoc on his new leadership PAC, “Save America.”

If you haven’t received any of his emails, contact me at louisianavoice@yahoo.com and I’ll be happy to pass them along to you.

It’s the least I can do.