The pro-Trump PAC launched by Elon Musk is under fire for its novel, and deceptive – and legally questionable – approach to getting people to volunteer their personal information.
Save America PAC has spent more than $800,000 since early July on digital ads targeting voters in battleground states, with the aim being to get those targeted to attempt to register to vote through a link on the PAC’s website.
The catch: people in battleground states don’t get directed to their state’s voter-registration page, but rather, they’re asked to fill out a detailed personal information form, where they are prompted to enter their address, cell number and age.
After doing all of that, they still don’t get linked to their state’s voter-registration page. Instead, they get a “thank you.”
If you really need to sign up to vote in 2024
The information gathered on those who provide it is forming the backbone of a door-to-door canvassing operation led by Save America PAC and coordinated with the Trump campaign, though the expected effectiveness of that operation is very much in question.
A shake-up at the PAC in mid-July upended its previous leadership group, and the New York Times reported this week that the upheaval has affected operations at the state and local levels, with people who had been hired to work as door-to-door canvassers being told that they were being let go.
The PAC’s new leadership, whose group, according to a CNBC report, includes Dave Rexrode, an Augusta County native and veteran Virginia GOP pol, is rushing to get new canvassers in place, with early voting set to begin across the country early next month.
If this all seems slapdash, consider the names at the top of the operation – Elon Musk, who paid $44 billion for the right to run Twitter into the ground, and Donald Trump, the world’s most cash-poor billionaire.
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Chris Graham
