You know the economy must be hot when Americans have tens of millions of dollars to throw away on absurd GoFundMe campaigns.
Over 20,000 contributors have donated a total of more than $12 million to a fundraising campaign called “We The People Will Fund The Wall.” That’s right: Supporters of the wall are in such a giving mood that if Mexico won’t pay for it, they will. They think.
The funds raised, of course, will never actually pay for a wall. Even assuming that the organizer, Brian Kolfage, fully intends on sending a check to the federal government, he has no idea how to actually do that.
“We have contacted the Trump Administration to secure a point of contact where all the funds will go upon completion,” wrote Kolfage in the original campaign description. “When we get this information secured we will update. We have many very high level contacts already helping.”
Sounds promising! The contact may find a contact one day, but go fund me now!
Kolfage also promises to “refund every single penny” if he doesn’t reach “or come significantly close” to the stated the goal, whatever that means. The goal itself is $1 billion. The most successful GoFundMe of 2018 raised $22 million.
So, as you can see, there are a few problems here.
While GoFundMe and other crowdsourcing websites have raised millions for the families and victims of shootings and natural disasters, students who can’t afford college, disabled people in need, and sick kids requiring medical treatment, it’s also provided a playground for the Internet’s dumbest ideas.
The #Resistance hasn’t just funded obvious suspects, such as Stormy Daniels in her failed legal bid against Trump and fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe (remember him!). They’ve also hailed Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, as a martyr, sending nearly $180,000 to the “Michael Cohen Truth Fund.”
The aforementioned GoFundMe campaign wants $1 billion for the wall. Trump wants $5 billion for the wall. Fox News anticipates that the government will require $25 billion for the wall. In the the first four days, “We The People” raised $12.3 million for the wall. Even if the campaign could keep this momentum up until they reached Trump’s vast underestimate of $5 billion, it would take more than four and a half years.
And, of course, it’s a bipartisan affliction: A GoFundMe to buy “Ladders to Get Over Trump’s Wall” earned over $87,000 in just two days.
