The ‘Fake’ Trump Legal Fund Playing Both Sides and Duping Everyone
A so-called “Patriot Legal Defense Fund” isn’t actually associated with Donald Trump—and it can’t make it up its mind if it’s pro-Trump or anti-Trump.
Roger Sollenberger
Senior Political Reporter
Published Sep. 07, 2023 4:33AM EDT
Donald Trump’s grifting appears to know no bounds. But now, an apparent Trump critic has charted new territory, turning Trump’s grift into their own—and duping national media organizations in the process.
A website purporting to associate itself with Trump’s “Patriot Legal Defense Fund” is now being denounced as “fake,” as it appears to be trying to swindle Trump supporters into lining the pockets of an anti-Trump scammer.
And while the identity of the site’s owner is still unknown, it’s clear the person is no fan of the former president.
It would be hard to draw that conclusion from just looking at the site today. But over the last few weeks, the page—patriotlegaldefensefund.com—has expressed contradictory views of Trump so stark that major publications, including the tech-savvy site Gizmodo, attributed the work to hackers.
A person with direct knowledge of the real Patriot Legal Defense Fund, however, told The Daily Beast that it wasn’t hackers—there is no official website, and never has been.
“It’s a fake site selling fake merch,” this person said. “The legal fund does not have a website nor do we sell merch.”
But the fake site is selling merch. And it is not directing donors to Trump’s real fund, which campaign aides set up last month to help take the sting out of legal fees incurred by his alleged co-conspirators, allies, and various witnesses. While today those sales appears to be the page’s only purpose, it had a markedly different tone just weeks ago, when it implored users, “DO NOT SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP’S FRAUDULENT PATRIOT LEGAL DEFENSE FUND.”
While some people may find it difficult to cry too hard for Trump—who has run a mind-boggling array of grifts over the years and is reportedly leaving some of his Georgia co-defendants to fend for themselves despite the new fund—the fake website has already claimed its share of innocent bystanders, including a number of media outlets, and it appears to be doing the very thing it once deplored: stiffing unwitting Trump supporters by lying to their faces.
In that sense, the page appears authentically Trump, by its own definition, and only perpetuating the cycle of scams.
The website’s confusing saga fits within a larger narrative, one woven of Trump’s own ever-increasing legal woes, the sprawling legal fees that his associates are racking up, his history of donor exploitation, and a new question of whether Trump even has the rights to fundraise off of his own mugshot.
