TRUMP-VANCE 2026?
Paid for by Never Surrender, Inc.
Looking, as one does, at President Trump’s Truth Social account, I noticed that it had a link to the website donaldjtrump.com rather than, oh, whitehouse.gov. My curiosity piqued, I clicked through and found this:
As one who follows American politics rather closely, I was somewhat confused. I distinctly remembered Trump and Vance running for—and winning—election to the White House in 2024. And, reaching back to my schoolboy civics lessons, I recalled that we only hold presidential elections every four years.
Regardless, they’re soliciting donations to the MAGA Movement:
TRUMP NATIONAL COMMITTEE JFC, INC. (thankfully, the JFC stands for Joint Fundraising Committee) has thus far taken in just under $88 million. What is it fundraising for? It is not immediately clear. But it has somehow accumulated $30.7 million in “operating expenditures” and transferred $55.2 million to “affiliated committees,” mostly Never Surrender, Inc., the RNC, and Working for Ohio.
NEVER SURRENDER, INC. has taken in an additional $51.5 million. It has, so far as I can tell, spent nothing on election activity but has spent $17.4 million on “operating expenditures.”
So, the Trump-Vance 2026 website, which collects donations for Trump National Committee JFC, Inc., is supported by Never Surrender, Inc., which gets its donations from Trump National Committee JFC, Inc.
What Trump and Vance are running for in 2026 remains a mystery.
Grifters gotta grift.
@Sleeping Dog is correct. A PAC like this is pretty much set up to funnel expenses that even this crew doesn’t want to pay for out of public funds and to employ some of the parasitic types that stick around after campaigns are over. My guess is that there’s some funds going to opposition research firms, some money to other committees, but most of it is likely “salaries” being paid to those in Trump’s orbit.
@Jen: I would expect there’s a sort of Credit Mobilier thing going on. The PAC enters into contracts with private firms that are held mostly by Trump, and they get large profits from it.
Maybe this isn’t even illegal, as such.
As my grandmother used to say, Judas Iscariot on roller skates!
ETA makes me long for the honest and straight shooting statesman of my youth. You know, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew.
Or going back a bit further, these guys make Tammany Hall look honest.
It’s not just about the grift. It’s not just about his megalomaniacal need to engage in fantasies of unlimited power. Trump wants to hold the threat of a third-term run over everyone’s head for as long as he thinks he can. For one thing, he knows how much it fuels the fears of those who correctly see him as a wannabe autocrat. The more people think of the downfall of American democracy as an inevitability, the less energized they become in joining the fight to prevent it from happening.
For another thing, it helps in his efforts to beat other Republicans into submission, and to make anyone interested in winning the 2028 GOP nomination kiss his ass as much as they can. I predict that when and if Vance announces his presidential run, even he will try to avoid explicitly pushing back against the idea that Trump will be the nominee again. I could easily see him claiming that he’ll drop out the moment his boss enters the race.
@Kylopod: But, this isn’t even a third-term head-fake. That would carry a 2028 label. This is “Trump-Vance 2026,” which isn’t even a thing. That’s why I lean more towards the grift side of things. If they used 2028, they’d be signalling an intent. This is just “hey, we want money. Send some.”
Not looking as one does lol. Very droll, Dr. Joyner.