“You’re on my mind.”
“Do you need a hug?”
“I love you.”
“They want to sentence me to death!”
No, these aren’t attempts at romance (albeit horribly in the end) by someone you met on a dating app.
They are fundraising emails from Donald Trump.
“It’s like a multi-personality battery test. I don’t know exactly what they are aiming at,” said Democratic strategist Tim Lim.
But for the Trump campaign, the answer is clear: “personal feeling.”
“The Trump campaign cares about his supporters and every American. “President Trump’s supporters appreciate messages that are personal, as well as messages that highlight Crooked Joe Biden’s record of failure and weakness,” said Caroline Sunshine, deputy director of communications for the Trump campaign.
Politicians (and scammers) have long relied on emotional appeals to separate people from their money. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has become the bane of donors. as often as inboxes with horrible fundraising emails, “URGENT” and “We are on the verge Dem-pocalypse,” implored loyal Democrats to donate before it’s too late.
Then-President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helped bring the country to the point where he realized the effectiveness of random subject lines that sound like they’re coming from a friend. Things like “Hey” and “I don’t usually email.” earned big bucks.
But if Obama was your go-to friend for a cup of coffee, Trump’s vibe goes from intimate to intimidating and back again.
“You are the reason I wake up every morning. I love you to the moon and I really mean it,” Trump’s May 3 email read.
“PLEASE PLEASE tell me you love me too!” Read more from April 26.
And for people who want legal drama, there’s a drama from May 3: “I’m in court right now. There are only a few minutes left before the lunch break, and I’m using it to talk to you.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign is a little more businesslike in its fundraising appeals. Here’s the sweetest: “Join President Biden, President Obama, and me from home!” and “I have a lot of respect for you,” though one titled “I need you with me” started to cross into Trump territory.
It’s a dead end for online political fundraising, which has been relied on by both parties in recent years. Post-pandemic, online fundraising revenues are no longer growing at the same exponential rate. In fact, they narrow down to many candidates and groups: NOTUS news agency reported on this small dollar donations Both parties’ House and Senate campaign committees are lower in the first three months of 2024 than they were in 2022 or the same period in 2020, suggesting a shift that other groups are also experiencing.
Lim said that this kind of “quick change of tone and delivery from one email to the next” doesn’t seem to be “very effective” in raising money.
“I think most of his online fundraising is dictated by events outside the campaign,” he said.
Not all of Trump’s fundraising emails are so lighthearted. There are more obscure ones about his legal problems – “Where do I send my mugshot?” — and his grievances with Democrats — “Prosecute Biden” — often mirror his more extreme campaign rhetoric.
The last days have become even darker.
Trump’s ordeal caused his 2024 fundraising to increase in 2023. indictments and accusations later attracted tens of millions of dollars to his campaign after he was found guilty in a hush money trial in New York last month.
A New York jury has since found him He is found guilty of all 34 crimesTrump continued with emails along these lines:
“I am a political prisoner”
“I was just tried in a mock trial!”
“The darkest day in American history!”
This week, the Trump campaign called “Bring out the guillotine!” sent an email with the title. The email revived a complaint six years ago against comedian Kathy Griffin, who later faced a widespread backlash. posted a video holding a fake Trump-like severed head. The email also claimed that Griffin’s clip was “the Sick Dream of every Trump-deranged out there.”
The return to an old complaint echoes what has happened in Trump’s public appearances increasingly focused on revenge since the verdict.
In another recent fundraising email, Trump used the subject line: “1 month until all hell breaks loose.” He will be sentenced on July 11.
But even as he waits for that milestone, he occasionally returns to his old fundraising form. On June 4, his campaign launched with the subject line “Want to travel together?”
Read the letter “Just the two of us”. “We’re going to talk about my fake faith, have a great dinner, and at the end of it all, we’re going to take pictures to remember this day Forever!”