In recent days, as the U.K. pondered its future in the European Union and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump waded in with a press conference on his Scottish golf course, the Scottish National Party’s 54 members of the British Parliament received multiple emails from Trump’s campaign, soliciting donations for his presidential bid — a possible violation of U.S. campaign finance laws, they say.
“They’ve been getting these emails for the past week,” SNP staffer Christopher Mullins-Silverstein told Fusion. “Ever since he came to Scotland.”
Records provided to Fusion show that the emails actually started last Wednesday, the day before Britons voted to leave the E.U. in a historic referendum — and just before Trump arrived in the Scottish lowlands to promote his golf resort and praise the Brexit vote, with awkward results.
The donation emails sent to the MPs include one in which Trump praises British voters for opting to leave the E.U. “These voters stood up for their nation — they put the United Kingdom first, and they took their country back,” it states, linking to a donation site and adding: “Will you stand with me at this critical time?” (Nearly two-thirds of Scots voted against leaving the E.U.; many Scots, led by left-leaning SNP politicians, are now calling for independence from the rest of the U.K. for Scotland.)
It’s possible that an outside troll signed up the MPs for Trump’s campaign emails without their, or the Trump camp’s, knowledge. But the emails’ timing, and Trump’s headline-grabbing idiosyncrasies, left some of the liberal-leaning Scottish politicians wondering if this was another stunt by the crass land tycoon. “I wouldn’t put it past Trump’s campaign to troll the SNP,” Mullins-Silverstein told Fusion. “One of our MPs did call for him to be banned from the U.K.” He said that parliamentary member, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, also received the Trump solicitations. Cont.
Story from - Fusion
Image from - Juliana lopes - Flickr
cc 2.0
No comments:
Post a Comment