Raw Story editor-in-chief Dave Levinthal went on CNN Friday to discuss how former President Donald Trump crafts wildly misleading or dishonest fundraising pitches.
At issue was Trump's attempt to fundraise this week off revelations that FBI agents had authorization to use deadly force if confronted with a life-threatening danger when they executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
Despite the fact that this authorization is standard for FBI searches -- in fact, the same language was also present when agents were authorized to search President Joe Biden's properties for classified documents -- Trump nonetheless sent out a hysterical email to his supporters falsely claiming that Biden had sent the FBI "locked and loaded" to take him out.
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As Levinthal explained, this was a particularly egregious example of a common tactic used by the former president.
"There literally is nothing new about this," he said. "It would be wildly irresponsible if there wasn't a [FBI] document such as this, given what had happened at Mar-a-Lago. But hey, all you need is that nanoparticle of truth and it makes for the greatest fundraising email. The point for Donald Trump is to whip up his supporters, drum up cash -- which, to remind you, he needs pretty badly these days...This has been a very effective approach for him, even if it has been entirely disingenuous."
Watch the video below or at this link.