Trump Supporters’ Data Being Rented Out to Raise Money For His Campaign

In Donald Trump’s world everything is for sale, even the names and addresses of his supporters. It was reported yesterday by The New York Times that political consultants close to the president are making available a list with the email addresses and cellphone numbers of millions of his supporters. Proceeds will go to the Trump campaign.

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“SCOOP: The TRUMP campaign is marketing its database of 20M supporters’ personal data for rent to campaigns, PACs & even private businesses. It appears to be the 1st time a sitting @POTUS facing reelection has partnered with a list broker to do this.”

The highly-prized list will be sold for one-time use to Republican candidates and conservative groups, according to the Times. It will even be available to for-profit businesses that wish to reach the president’s supporters.

Trump’s campaign recently entered into an agreement with the political consulting group Excelsior Strategies, which is based in Virginia. They will sell the list information to their customers for one-time use at the rate of $35 per 1,000 addresses, according to the Times. Eighty-five percent of the money earned from the rental will go to the Trump campaign.

“Republicans have suffered from being behind in small-dollar fund-raising, and the president, over the course of the campaign and his presidency, has built the largest Republican first-party data list,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale told the Times. “So giving other candidates and groups access to that data through a legal means to rent it was one of the best things I could do for the Republican ecosystem. And the campaign makes a little money, too. It’s a win-win,” he added.

Parscale negotiated the agreement and set up the arrangement for mailing list rental. The renting of political lists is common practice in politics.

In 2017, the Democratic National Committee agreed to pay $1.65 million to access voter data compiled by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The Federal Election Commission requires campaigns that receive such lists to pay fair market value for them.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.