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An assembly with a management officer. A picture with Donald Trump Jr. To the president himself. We Build the Wall has turned a message flow into a lot of donations.
By Eric Lipton
Since the arrest of former senior politician Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump has tried to distance himself from the nonprofit that has raised more than $25 million with the goal of building a wall along the Mexican border.
But social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are brilliant documentation of how the group’s supporters, We Build the Wall, worked to show that they were only close to Trump and his family, but that they had also received endorsement from them.
This partnership with Trump’s circle of family members and other political actors in his circle was an indispensable component of his fundraising campaign, and illustrates how social media has an essential tool for marketing specialists looking to temporarily increase the budget—even if that means violating federal law.
After Bannon and three other men were arrested Thursday in what prosecutors say is a plan to defraud donors and embezzle cash for non-public purposes, Trump warned that he made no effort to build his own walls.
“I didn’t like this assignment,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it’s a task that was done for reasons of ostentation.”
But donors can be forgiven for thinking they do. For the We Build the Wall team, led by Mr. Bannon, with veteran and air force amputee Brian Kolfage and Timothy and Amanda Shea of Arizona, whenever they were near Trump, it was an opportunity to push for new donations. giving the appearance that Trump had embraced the campaign. And the president and his entourage seemed to be doing little to discourage the idea.
That included a fundraising opportunity that Shea attended in the Hamptons last summer, which turned into an opportunity to push the effort from the wall, a message to supporters suggesting that she had raised the factor with Trump and that he had endorsed the initiative. Campaign.
The New York Times uploaded and reposted those posts on Instagram and Twitter, since the arrests have begun to disappear.
Another Shea post provides an overview of how he won for Trump: it appears to have been a fundraising event.
The most likely short meeting with Trump has become a key marketing opportunity for The Build the Wall’s social media team, which has said Trump has backed his efforts, even if Trump himself has not made any public statements over the time he supported the personal fundraising campaign. (After the personal wall began to experience obvious erosion disorders this summer, Trump tweeted that he opposed the effort.)
Kris Kobach, former Kansas state secretary and Trump’s best friend, told The Times in January 2019 that the president had given the wall his “blessing.”
“I spoke to the president and the We Build the Wall effort was launched,” Kobach said at the time. “The president said, “The assignment has my blessing and you can tell the media.”
The White House responded to a request for comment at the time.
A critical moment in the fundraising crusade came in July 2019, with the scale of Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, on the site where the organization built its first small personal wall segment, in Sunland Park, New Mexico All components of the scale recorded and shared on social media, through various accounts and various effort-affiliated personalities.
The social media message included links to the GoFundMe account that organizers used to raise the budget, explaining that the scale on was noted as a way to raise a new budget for their efforts, which they also called “Trump’s Wall.”
We Build the Wall organizers lively broadcast Mr. Trump’s comments, then sent the recording to YouTube to verify that it was viewed widely, selling the YouTube video through their social media accounts.
Other conservative heroes and Trump supporters visited the structure site, and all prevented a celebrity or elected official from being another fundraising opportunity. Among them were Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former crusader manager, and David Bossie, former crusader director. Alongside them, Kobach, who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate this year. He is a member of the Board of Directors of We Build the Wall and its Legal Adviser.
Kolfage also placed a tweet of a video of Gloria Chavez, the border patrol’s domain leader, alongside Chad Wolf, the acting security secretary, complementing the personal border wall. Wolf said at the same press conference that he welcomed “everyone who needs to be part of the solution.” He also visited the component of the personal wall in New Mexico. Wolf later denied having approved the project. But the organization still issued a press release celebrating “approval” and, once back, requesting more donations.
The definitive signal to many of Trump’s allies that a cause has been backed up through Trump’s family circle is an official stopover at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s personal club in Florida.
Kolfage rang that bell in February 2019, which included a photo with Eric Trump, the president’s son of the time, who has temporarily become an opportunity to link We Build the Wall’s fundraising crusade to Trump and his family. Other We Build the Wall executives edited the Trump International Hotel in Washington and Chicago, according to other social media posts.
We Build the Wall officials have also tried to marry other high-level conservatives, adding leaders of the House Freedom Caucus. In this photo, Ms. Shea and Mr. Kolfage, as Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, now Trump’s staff leader, among others.
The ability to monetize a link with Trump has lo extended beyond the efforts of We Build the Wall, the social media accounts of the organization’s executives. The Shea recently introduced a Trump-inspired energy drink they call Winning Energy. Mr. Trump’s symbol is posted on the box and his promotions on social media quote Mr. Trump.
To publicize their product, they joined Trump’s re-election campaign, serving as the “official sponsor” of Trump’s so-called boat parade in Florida in July. Mr. Kolfage is listed as the point of contact for the event.
The promotion of social media has made it clear that they are there to sell their energy drink, which they say is made up of 12 ounces of liberal tears.
The indictment filed through the Department of Justice, which filed criminal fees against Mr. Bannon, Mr. Shea, Mr. Kolfage and a fourth user involved in the group, Andrew Badolato, a longtime associate of Mr. Bannon, stated that the cash that those 4 illegally took from the nonprofit was spent on non-public expenses such as travel , hotels and credit card debts. The organization’s leaders had promised donors that they would “not publicly accept a penny of reimbursement for those donations,” the indictment says.
Mr. Kolfage, according to the indictment, was competitive in his dollar spending, the budget for “home renovations, boat bills, a luxury van, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, non-public tax bills” and other items.
The Justice Department said purchases included a 2018 Land Rover Range Rover and a 2019 Jupiter Marine ship called Warfighter. The ship, according to social media accounts, performed at Trump’s boat parade in July, with a Trump-Pence flag.
“Be a winner, ” Mr. Kolfage.
Some members of the organization have turned to social media in recent days to protect their movements and that the Justice Department fabricated the allegations, and Kolfage claimed that he had purchased the Warfighter before helping to discover the organization. He also continued to press his links to the president on his Facebook page, even adopting a favorite term from Trump for the case that opposed him: “The Witch Hunt.”
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