Organizers have begun holding events in black communities where they lavish praise on the president while handing out thousands of dollars in giveaways.
Allies of Donald Trump have begun holding events in black communities where organizers lavish praise on the president as they hand out tens of thousands of dollars to lucky attendees.
"Charities are required to spend their money on charitable and educational activities,” said Marcus Owens, a former director of the Exempt Organizations Division at the Internal Revenue Service who is now in private practice at the law firm Loeb & Loeb. “It's not immediately clear to me how simply giving money away to people at an event is a charitable act.”
Since then, Scott become a regular presence in the West Wing. He has championed the Trump administration’s criminal justice reform efforts, signed into law as the First Step Act, and the creation of Opportunity Zones. That program, passed as part of the 2017 tax overhaul, provides tax breaks for investment in certain urban and rural districts that are deemed in need of economic stimulus.
The parallel tour being organized by the Urban Revitalization Coalition stands out for its promise to shower cash prizes on attendees who listen to speakers promote the president’s initiatives. The first cash giveaway took place last month. Another was scheduled in Virginia for Martin Luther King Day before being scrapped amid a dispute with the college set to host the event. Organizers say they plan to roll out a tour schedule featuring more events soon.
"If they do it independently and it really is agenda focused, not electoral, yes that's permissible under campaign finance law," said Adav Noti, a senior director at the Campaign Legal Center, an election law watchdog. Flyers advertising the Cleveland event said it was “open to the public” and that recipients “must be present to redeem giveaways.”
In the closing weeks of the 2016 campaign, efforts to depress black voter turnout were central to the Trump team’s efforts, and he performed slightly better with that group than Republican nominee Mitt Romney did in 2012. This election cycle, Trump’s campaign is making more concerted, earlier investments in black voter outreach.
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