Donald Trump's campaign is being sued for sending unwanted text messages

It is annoying enough to get wrong-number texts from randos, but what about when Donald Trump sends you an unsolicited SMS? Joshua Thorne of Illinois has filed a lawsuit against Trump's campaign on behalf of anyone who has received such a text, The Chicago Tribune reports — and apparently, thousands have.

According to the class-action complaint, Trump's campaign violated the Telephone Customer Protection Act, which forbids sending texts using an automatic telephone dialing system without the recipient's express consent, due to the fact that text messages often cost their recipients money. On March 4, however, Trump for President allegedly sent thousands of unsolicited messages that read, "Reply YES to subscribe to Donald J. Trump for President. Your subscription will help Make America Great Again! Msg&data rates may apply."

The text messages were reportedly sent using randomly generated phone numbers from the bulk-messaging software company Tatango. Tatango offers a free guide that explains the TCPA guidelines, including that without express consent from recipients, businesses can be fined $1,500 per unwanted text message.

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"Based on the information we have at this point, we're very confident that a violation was made and we intend to pursue it to the gates of hell," Joseph Siprut, who is representing the plaintiffs, said.